Tears in the Night
by The Professor of Fixing Things
Summary: VOL5 FINALE SPOILERS! After finally reuniting, it's obvious that Blake and Yang have a lot they need to talk about. However, once friendships and trust are broken, they're hard to put back together again. Will they working things out by themselves, or will they need a push? Yang can't stay mad at Blake forever... can she? BeeFF's.
1. Chapter One: Approaching the Chasm

**SPOILER ALERT!: MAJOR SPOILERS FOR VOLUME 5 FINALE! IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN IT YET, THEN DON'T READ THIS YET!**

 **(Mom… Mom, I'm looking at you… You just finished Volume 2, you can't read this yet!)**

 **By the way, I think I should let you know that if you're here looking for Bumbleby… I just wanna let you know that the only bees appearing here are BeeFF's. Translation: This is platonic, not romantic. Sorry; not sorry. I know that the majority of the fandom ships them… but I just don't, okay? I'm not trying to start a fight, I'm just letting you know. If you're looking for romance, it's just not here. And if you're** _ **not**_ **looking for romance… well, then you've come to the right place!**

 **(Also, can we make, "BeeFF's" the official platonic tag for Yang and Blake, please? Since their partner attack combo is "Bumblebee" and their OTP ship name is "Bumblebee(by)," why not have their BrOTP name be "BeeFF's"? You know, sticking with the bee motif and making it a pun, to boot? What do y'all think? Let me know in the review box below after you've finished reading this chapter.)**

 **DISCLAIMER: I do not own the cover image or RWBY. The cover image, RWBY, and its characters are the lovely brainchildren of Monty Oum (may his memory be eternal) and Rooster Teeth. I am merely a fangirl playing in the world that they created.**

 **That being said, let me stop talking so that you can come play in this world with me.**

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 _ **Chapter One: Approaching the Chasm.**_

 _Theme Song: Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 20 in G major, (Op. 49 No. 2-2_ _nd_ _mov. Tempo di Menuetto)._

Despite what some movies, books, or fanfictions may say, two people sharing a twin-sized bed isn't the most comfortable of sleeping arrangements. Especially if the two in question are both grown adults.

Why? Well, there's a great violation of personal space since it's an awfully small bed. Some people toss and turn as they try to get comfortable, some throw punches and kicks while fighting monsters in their dreams, and others hog the blankets, or spread themselves out like a starfish, or even push their bedfellow off of the mattress itself.—Or maybe your companion is a touch… _bulkier_ than you are, and thus, they take up more space than you.—And if both of you like to sleep on your side and you end up facing each other… well, that can either be awkward or not depending on your relationship with that other person. Not to mention there are those who snore and talk in their sleep, and don't get me started on morning breath and body odor.

Or maybe you and your current bedfellow haven't seen each other for about a year and they're mad at you for something you did and you feel guilty because it was your fault and now you're wondering if you're still even friends anymore while an awkward silence is turning the very air around you into a stifling, uncomfortable mess.

That's how Blake Belladonna felt as she lay with her back to her bunkmate in their shared twin bed.

How did she end up in that situation?

Well, after the battle at Haven Academy had been won and Team RWBY had been reunited, Qrow had told them all that they were going to take a day to rest and catch up before packing up and heading to Atlas. And since Blake had made it apparent that she wasn't going to leave her team again, that meant that she would be going with them.

All those who were going to go to Atlas were Team RWBY, the remainder of Team JNPR, Oscar/Ozpin, and Qrow. Sun and Ilia hadn't decided yet if they were going to go with them or not, but they were currently staying with them in the campus guest house to either catch up with them or become acquainted with them, respectively. Thus, it was rather cramped in the guest house, and many had to share beds, since there were no sleeping bags and the couches weren't very comfortable for sleeping on—as Qrow had found out the morning after finding Oscar/Ozpin, and the pain in his back did nothing to help his hangover whatsoever. So after they all had a late dinner together, they all proceeded to sort out their sleeping arrangements. There were eleven people—twelve if you counted Ozpin in Oscar's head—and three guest rooms with two twin-sized beds each, so almost everyone would have to share.

In Team JN_R's room, Jaune and Ren had bunked together in one bed while Nora had graciously offered to share with Ilia—much to the chameleon girl's trepidation due to the other girl's very hyperactive personality. Ruby had moved her things out of the room she had previously shared with her uncle so that Sun and Oscar could bunk together in her old bed there—much to Qrow 's annoyance, considering the monkey boy's talkative nature—and had moved into Weiss and Yang's room, instantly jumping on the ex-heiress's bed and proclaiming that she was going to bunk with her "super-bestie-better-than-the-restie." Oddly enough, Weiss didn't protest or try to push her out, but just rolled her eyes, smiled fondly, and scooted over to give her partner some room. That left Blake with only one option: to bunk with Yang…

Awkward…

So anyways, that's how Blake came to be sleeping in a twin bed, back to back with Yang.

Neither Yang nor Blake had anything with them in terms of sleepwear—come to think of it, none of them did—so the two had to just settle for taking off their jackets and boots and sleeping in their tank tops and long travel pants. In addition to her boots and jacket, Yang had also removed the left half of Ember Celica, her leather wrist guards, her scarf, as well as her prosthetic arm and placed them all on the nightstand. When Blake had—nervously—asked why she had taken off her arm, the blonde had simply shrugged and replied in a nonchalant and _seemingly_ uncaring tone, "I don't wanna accidentally hit you with it in my sleep." Turning her back to the cat faunus as she placed her boots by the door, Yang added, "Or shoot you with it."

Needless to say, Blake was terrified.

Once the four girls had put away their weapons, shoes, and jackets, they got into their beds and got comfy. Ruby and Weiss snuggled underneath the covers of the ex-heiress's bed, and Blake huddled underneath the blankets of Yang's bed while the blonde lay on top of the covers. The light was turned off and then they all proceeded to say their goodnights.

The leader went first. "Night-night, Yang. Night-night, Blake. Night-night, Weiss."

Then the ex-heiress. "Goodnight, Ruby. Goodnight, Yang. Goodnight, Blake."

Next, the prodigal teammate. "'Night, Weiss. 'Night, Ruby. 'N-Night, Yang."

Then the brawler. "G'night, Ruby. G'night, Weiss… G'night, Blake."

With their goodnights all said and done, they proceeded to try and get some shuteye. Weiss was the first to fall asleep, followed quickly by Ruby, and after a while, Yang as well, but Blake had a hard time getting to sleep. After many months, she had finally gotten used to sleeping without her teammates close by, so to have them near again would take some getting used to, but despite that, she wouldn't trade being close to them again for the whole wide world. That, however, did not change the fact that insomnia was plaguing the cat faunus, caused by both the sudden close proximity to her teammates again, as well as the adrenaline and stress of the previous battle and journey to come.

If she were the only one in the bed, Blake would have been tossing and turning, but Yang was pressed almost back-to-back against her, and she had to be considerate of her teammate. So, for the next couple of hours, she tried her best to lie as still as she could.

As I am sure you know by now, some faunus have heightened senses depending on their specific animalistic characteristics, and since Blake was a cat faunus, she could see almost perfectly in the dark, and she had a heightened sense of hearing. Her almost perfect night-vision wasn't hindering her ability to sleep—it never had—but her hearing, however, was another one of the things keeping her awake. Her keen cat ears would twitch every so often from the slight noises she would hear in the room: Weiss occasionally murmuring in her sleep, Ruby quietly snoring and her rustling the blankets slightly as she shifted in her sleep, and Yang's slightly louder snoring.

There was nothing out of the ordinary about these sounds. They were the sounds that she had heard every night during her time at Beacon. But tonight there was one sound that didn't belong.

Every so often, Yang's snoring would stop, and another soft, almost unrecognizable sound would take its place.

When Blake first heard it, she thought that it was just the foundation of the guest house creaking and groaning.

But buildings normally only creak and groan either when there's a strong wind, if there's lots of snow on the roof, or if it's about to collapse. There was no howling of a strong wind outside, it wasn't winter, and it was pretty safe to say that the guest house was structurally sound… so it _couldn't_ be the foundation creaking and groaning… What else could it be?

Before she could figure out what the sound could possibly be, it stopped, and Yang started snoring again soon after.

Knowing that it would be futile to try and pinpoint the mystery noise over the sound of the brawler's snoring, the cat faunus shut her eyes and resumed attempting to go to sleep.

After many minutes, Yang's snoring stopped again, and the mysterious sound was heard once more. Lifting her head off of the pillow, Blake pivoted her ears around, searching for the source of the noise. It sounded like it was coming from the wall behind her, and this time it almost sounded like the squeaking of some sort of rodent. Probably a mouse.

There was nothing unordinary about that; many old buildings such as this one were known to have the occasional mouse or rat scurrying around in the walls or attics.

Feeling satisfied with this answer, Blake laid her head back onto the pillow and relaxed once more.

Several minutes later—it had to have been a little after three in the morning by now—she heard the mysterious noises a third time. This time, however, they were accompanied by Yang squirming ever so slightly from her place back-to-back with Blake. After a moment, realization finally hit the cat faunus like a train. The sound was Yang _whimpering_! Yang was having a nightmare! _Probably caused by the PTSD that_ you _gave her!_ her conscience accused her. _Shut up, brain, I know!_ she silently snapped back at herself. _Stop reminding me!_

Eyes widening at this realization, and guilt tugging at her heart for only putting the pieces together _just now_ , Blake turned over in the bed as carefully as she could before placing her hand on the other's shoulder—the one missing its arm—and began to gently run her hand back and forth. "Shh… its okay, Yang," she whispered. "You're safe... its okay… I'm here."

For many moments, Blake kept on whispering reassurances as she continued to gently rub the blonde's shoulder. It didn't seem to be working, at least not very well, and every little sound that her best friend made—she didn't even know if they _were_ best friends anymore—chipped away another piece of her already broken heart. She briefly considered trying to calm her by gingerly petting her hair like she used to do before Beacon fell.

In case you didn't know, dear reader, Blake petting Yang's hair was a thing that had started shortly after her teammates found out that she was a faunus:

" _Blake?"_

" _Yes, Yang?"_

" _May I please touch your cat ears?"_

"… _Only if I can touch your hair."_

"… _Deal."_

It was a pretty laid back little ritual between the two of them, and would typically start with Blake sitting somewhere reading a book and Yang eventually coming along and either sitting or lying beside her. If the cat faunus was laying on her bed, then Yang would curl up next to Blake with her head on her stomach and ask her to read to her, which the brunette would do for a while before beginning to lazily stroke the top of the blonde's head. If Blake was sitting at a desk or table while she read, Yang would sit next to her and lay her head on the table, using her arms as a pillow, before asking the other girl to read to her, which, again, the cat faunus would do before absentmindedly petting Yang's hair. Once in a while, they would switch places, and Blake would sit or lay next to Yang while the latter gently scratched at her ebony cat ears. This little hair and ear petting ritual, or habit, or whatever you want to call it, between them helped the two grow closer during their time at Beacon, and was one of the little ways they showed their trust for one another.

And on that note…

 _No,_ Blake finally decided, _I lost the right to touch her hair a long time ago._ Her thoughts were interrupted, however, when the blonde awoke with a jerk and a scared gasp, causing the cat faunus to both yank her hand away from Yang's shoulder and flatten her ears against her head in surprise.

For many moments, both women were as silent and still as the grave...

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 **Well, that concludes this chapter (I know, I'm mean, I'm not sorry, lol).**

 **Don't worry, I intend to finish this fic before Rooster Teeth airs the first chapter of Volume 6 (maybe even before the first trailer for it if I can). And speaking of which, I intend to have this fic be two, maybe three chapters long.**

 **I really hope you're enjoying this story so far. Please tell me what you thought about it in the review box below (your favorite/least favorite parts, comments, suggestions, etc.). Also, please tell me if you find any grammar errors and where to find them so that I can fix them (don't y'all ever worry about sounding like an English teacher, if anything, it will help me fix my mistakes and avoid making them again in the future).**

 **I'd also like to remind you to please tell me what you think of making "BeeFF's" the official platonic/BrOTP tag for Blake and Yang. And lastly, if you're a Bumblebee shipper and you've taken the time and patience to read this anyway and decided to be nice (and honest) when/if you leave a review… thank you, your niceness and patience is greatly and genuinely appreciated. :-) And if you're not a shipper, thanks to you as well. :-) Every review that I get brightens my day, so please send them my way.**

 **Thank you all so much for reading and God bless you and your day.**

 **Sincerely, The Professor.**

 **P.S. Happy belated-Easter/early-Pascha! :-)**


	2. Chapter Two: Cries from Across the Chasm

**I've got a funny story to tell you guys! You know how right after the spoiler alter in the previous chapter, I have a little thing in parentheses telling my mom to not read this yet? Well… she texted me the morning after I published this story and said, "Hahahahaha, I was just about to read your RWBY fan fic until you called me out! XD XD XD XD"**

 **My response to that? "Lol." (Funny, some people are embarrassed to have their parents like them on social media or look at stuff they post there, but I'm not bothered by it. Why is that? Eh, idk.)**

 **Also, to the person who asked what Pascha is, I'll explain. I'm a Greek Orthodox Christian, and we celebrate Easter (which we call "Pascha" [pronounced "pah-s-kuh"]) at a slightly different time from the Catholics, Protestants, and the other denominations because we sync up with the Jewish Passover (because Christ was crucified riiiiight before the Passover). (This year, we celebrated it on April 8** **th** **.) Fun Fact: "Pascha" is actually a Greek word which means "Passover," which is fitting, because of Christ** _ **passing over**_ **from death to life of His own will, and us being able to** _ **pass over**_ **from death to everlasting life with Him because of His Resurrection. So, long story short, Pascha is just Easter, just celebrated about a week later because we sync up with the Jewish Passover. I hope that makes sense and answers your question. :-) I don't know if anyone else who's Orthodox (apart from my mom and myself) reads my stories, so in case there is/are/was, I just wanted to wish them a blessed Pascha. (Another Fun Fact: While everyone else was celebrating Easter on April 1** **st** **this year, we were celebrating Palm Sunday on April 1** **st** **. Lol. Just thought I'd throw that out there.)**

 **Now, let's get on with the story!**

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 _ **Chapter Two: Cries from Across the Chasm.**_

 _Theme Song: Loneliness by Adrian von Ziegler (on YouTube)._

"Where are we going, Mommy?" little Yang asked the woman carrying her.

The woman dressed in black and red armor with long ebony hair simply smiled at her and stated, "We're going to the store, sweetheart."

Sure enough, there before them was a building with all sorts of produce and yard equipment out front, but when they entered, it looked more like an orphanage than a store. The interior of the building was just one great long hallway lined with cribs with unusually high sides. Her mother walked over to an empty crib and placed her in it before walking away.

Yang stood up and gripped the towering wooden bars that made up the sides of the crib. "Mommy, where are you going?" she called out. "Come back! I don' wanna stay here! Mommy, come back! I need you! Please, don't leave me!"

Sadly, her mother either didn't listen or didn't hear, and just kept on walking out the door, disappearing from sight.

Knowing that her mother wasn't going to come back, the child plopped down on her bottom and began to cry, scrubbing her face with her hands to try and wipe the tears away.

After a while, she heard the sound of someone else crying, and looking up, she saw a baby in the crib across the walkway from hers. Standing up in the crib to get a better look, Yang saw that the baby was Ruby, and she was crying and crying as only an infant could cry. Yang stretched out her hand through the wooden bars as far as she could, but she couldn't reach her little sister. "It's okay, Ruby, I'm here," she tried to reassure her. "We're going to be okay. We'll be adopted together, I promise. Don't you worry, everything's going to be okay."

At that moment, a lion entered the room, walking on his hind legs. He was going around peering into the many cribs that lined either side of the hallway. "Daddy!" Yang cried out.—She didn't know how she knew that the lion was Taiyang… she just… knew.—"Daddy, we're here! Ruby and I are here! Please, take us home!" Sadly, the lion didn't seem to hear her, but it didn't matter because he was already peering into Ruby's crib.

"Oh, yes," the lion softly exclaimed, "the rose will like this one." He then leaned his head down into the crib and pulled out a child that looked much like Yang, carrying her by holding the back of her shirt in his teeth. As he walked away and out the door, the blonde doppelganger gave the real Yang a smug smirk before sticking her tongue out at her in a sneer.

 _What on earth?_ Yang thought. _Who was_ _ **that**_ _? That wasn't me! How'd she get in Ruby's crib? Why'd Dad take her and not me or Ruby?_

"You, too, huh?" came a familiar voice from behind her. Turning around, Yang saw Weiss at the other end of the crib, sitting with her knees pulled under her chin and eyes wide open in either horror or shock, it was hard to tell which.

Relieved to see a familiar face, the blonde child leapt towards her friend to hug her, but the heiress shattered at her touch like the most fragile of glass. Now panicking, Yang frantically ran her hands through the pile of shattered pieces that was once her friend as her mind raced to try and come up with a way to put the heiress back together. Unfortunately, before she could come up with a solution, a pair of gloved hands grabbed hold of her at the waist and began to pick her up.

"I'll adopt _you_ ," a familiar masculine voice announced decidedly.

Upon looking at the face of the man who was now holding her against his chest, little Yang was horrified to discover that her adopter was none other than Adam Taurus. She struggled to get free, but the bull faunus only held the blonde child more tightly against his chest. She struggled, she squirmed, she kicked and punched, but nothing she did could make the masked terrorist's grip falter even for a moment. Finally giving up, she slumped against his chest in defeat, her chin resting on his shoulder. Looking at the cribs behind her "adopter," she remembered that Ruby was still there. She couldn't just leave her, she had a responsibility to her little sister to always be there to protect her! She promised her that they would be adopted _together,_ however horrible their adopter may be!

Before she could say or do anything, however, another figure quickly entered the room out of nowhere: Roman Torchwick. Or rather, it _looked_ like Roman Torchwick, but his normal human facial features had been replaced by the eerie glare and grin of a jack o' lantern. In the blink of an eye, Yang saw Torchwick zip over to her sister's crib, snatch up the little baby Ruby, and then dash away through whatever magical entryway or portal he had used and was gone from sight.

Tears began to fall from the young blonde's eyes as she realized that she had failed her little sister. With this thought cycling through her head, she closed her eyes in defeat. Maybe it was better this way. Better to be kidnapped by Torchwick than to be adopted by Adam, right? At least a kidnapper would want to keep their victim alive and in fairly good health in hopes of getting a ransom, right?

Then Yang realized something… she knew that she had been adopted by Adam, she knew that Ruby had been kidnapped by Torchwick, and she knew that Weiss had shattered into a million pieces, but… where was Blake?

When Yang opened her eyes again, she was a teenager once more, and she was standing in the decimated cafeteria of Beacon Academy. Standing several yards away from her was none other than her disarmer, Adam Taurus; his smirking face, half-hidden by his Grimm mask, taunting her from the depths of the darkness.

Looking down, Yang saw that both her arms were whole and healthy and each bearing the familiar weight of Ember Celica, which she immediately began to fire at the man slowly trekking towards her. When all the shots went through him, she paused for a moment and yelled, "Where's Blake?!"

But Adam didn't answer.

He just kept walking.

She tried again, this time shouting in between shots, "Where—" _**Bang!**_ "—is—" _**Bang!**_ "—Blake?!" _**Bang!**_

Still no answer.

The bullets went right through him.

He was so close now.

Yang redoubled her efforts, screaming between every couple shots, "WHERE—" _**Bang! Bang!**_ "—IS—" _**Bang! Bang!**_ "—BLAKE?!" She tried to fire two more rounds, but nothing happened. Looking down, Yang saw that Ember Celica was gone, as well as her right arm. Looking back up, she gasped in fear when she saw Adam standing right in front of her, his face a mere inches away from her own. She didn't dare speak, but the question still burned in her head, _Where's Blake?!_

Adam smirked and began to draw his sword.

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A sharp gasp tore itself from Yang's throat as her eyes flew open and her body jerked in fright.

For many moments, she was as silent and still as the grave as memories of her nightmare cycled through her head again, and again, and again. She thought of how Raven had abandoned her, how Taiyang had passed her by, how Weiss had shattered, how Adam had "adopted" her, how Ruby had been kidnapped, how her disarmer taunted her, and how she couldn't find Blake… Those thoughts started to crush some of the remaining pieces of her already broken heart.

She knew that it was just a dream, but that didn't stop the tear that silently rolled out of her eye and across the bridge of her nose before dripping onto the bed. Sniffling a little, her shoulders began to shake as she quietly sobbed, trying to keep her voice down for fear of waking up Ruby or Weiss.

Being so close and having such excellent hearing, Blake was able to hear every single pitiful little noise that Yang made, causing her own eyes to tear up as her heart broke for the blonde for the thousandth time. Not being able to bear hearing Yang cry anymore, she decided—after a moment or two of hesitation—to place her hand on back on the blonde's shoulder. As soon as the tips of her fingers made contact, another soft gasp flew from Yang's throat as she quickly whirled her head around to look over her shoulder. Amber eyes met lilac, and with her night vision, Blake could clearly see the wet tear marks on her face as clear as day. At first, Yang seemed surprised to see her, as if she had forgotten that the prodigal teammate had returned, before she hastily began to wipe the tears from her eyes with the one hand she had. This action caused her to turn her head away from the cat faunus.

"Sorry, Blake," Yang whispered with her head still turned away, "I didn't mean to wake you."

"Don't worry about it," Blake quietly reassured her, "I was already awake." She tightened her grip on the blonde's shoulder a touch, hoping her presence would offer some comfort. "Go back to sleep, Yang," she murmured softly, "you need the rest."

Silently agreeing that going back to sleep would be a good idea—seeing how it was past three in the morning—Yang maneuvered herself so that she was laying on her back, causing Blake to let go of her shoulder, and closed her eyes again. "G'night, Blake," she murmured.

"'Night, Yang," the other woman softly replied as she lay down on her side once more, this time facing the brawler.

For many moments, she stared at the blonde with a determined, almost analytical expression—her brow furrowed and mouth set in a hard line—as she tried to think of a way that she could help Yang feel better without overstepping the boundaries and rift that her leaving had built. It was difficult, to say the least. Every idea that she had would be immediately shot down by her overactive, guilt-tripping conscience.

 _Maybe petting her hair will help her feel better._

 _No, we already vetoed that idea, remember?_

 _Maybe a hug, then?—_ Memories of the blonde's comfort-filled bear hugs flashed through her mind.—

 _Just because you all had a group hug, that doesn't mean that Yang wants to hug just you yet._

 _Head nuzzling? Like I do with Mom and Dad?_ —Head nuzzling or head butting is a cat's way of saying, "You are dear to me," or "I love you."—

 _No. She doesn't know what that means. You'll weird her out._

 _Slow blink?—_ A cat's way of saying, "I love you," or "You are my friend." A form of cat communication that Yang actually knew about.—

 _She can't see in the dark, stupid. She'll think you're lying, anyway._

 _Cuddling?—_ Before Beacon fell, Team RWBY would often have a, as their leader called it, "Team Cuddle Night," where they would all get their blankets and pile them up on the floor in the middle of the dorm room and sleep underneath them in one great big cuddle pile. At first, Blake (and Weiss) had been skeptical, but after Yang used the argument that it would be a team-bonding exercise and Ruby had said, "Come on, Weiss, what happened to 'whatever we do, we should do it as a team?'" she (and Weiss) finally gave in to "Team Cuddle Night." Sleeping in a pile of blankets on the floor together was cramped, and hot, and uncomfortable, and if one of the girls had to get up in the middle of the night to pee she had to have the stealth of a ninja in order to keep from waking her teammates… but it was worth it. After that night, it soon became a weekly thing… and became one of the things that Blake had come to miss.—

 _That's even worse than a hug,_ she silently scolded herself. _Did you not hear her when you asked her about her arm? She said that she didn't want to accidentally hit_ _ **or shoot you with it.**_ _She's_ _ **obviously**_ _still mad at you and probably doesn't even like the idea of bunking with you at all._

Then another idea came to mind… to which, she thought…

… _That might work._

With her decision made, Blake began to sit up.

Yang's eyes flew open at the movement in the bed. "Where're you going?" she asked with a look of concern and... was that _fear?_

Blake said nothing, but began to try to take the top quilt of the bed out from underneath the blonde.

"What're you doing?" the brawler questioned, arching an eyebrow.

Blake still said nothing, but just tugged at the blanket some more. Sensing that the cat faunus was trying to move the blanket out from under her, Yang squirmed and moved her back, then hips up and out of the way to try and aid the brunette in… whatever it was she was trying to accomplish. Once the blanket was out from underneath the brawler's back and hips, it was an easy task to take it out from underneath her legs and feet as well. With that done, the cat faunus laid back down on her side again and took one corner of the blanket in one hand, bringing it up to cover her shoulders, before taking the other corner in her hand and tossing it over the blonde so that it covered _her_ as well.—It was one of the things that her father would do for her when she was little whenever she was upset. Was she sick? She would get wrapped up in a blanket and would sleep between her parents. Was she scared of a storm? Around her shoulders went the quilt to protect her from the thunder. Did one of her favorite book characters die? Her father would wrap the blanket around her and hug her to his chest as she cried about her "imaginary best friend" dying.—Since Blake was underneath all the blankets and Yang was only underneath the quilt, there were still a couple of blankets separating them, but for now, it was good enough.

Once Blake was satisfied that the blonde would be warm and cozy for the rest of the night, she looked the brawler in the eye and finally murmured, "I'm not going _anywhere_."

There was silence for many moments as they looked into each other's eyes, Blake's expression earnest and determined, while Yang's was somewhat shocked, confused, and I daresay even touched, before her gaze hardened and her brow furrowed as she whispered, "Prove it."

Accepting the challenge, Blake began to grope underneath the quilt near Yang's right side—since it was closest to her—searching for the blonde's hand. After failing to find her target for many moments, she lifted the quilt to look for it. _Oh, wait, that's right, she lost her right arm,_ she realized as she silently scolded her tired brain for forgetting that. At that, she reached over the blonde's waist and grasped her left hand, bringing it between them and intertwining their fingers. Blake held her hand tightly, but laid as far away from Yang as she could in the twin bed to respect her personal space… and the rift that had formed between them in their friendship.

"If you have another nightmare," the brunette murmured, "just squeeze my hand. Okay?"

Yang looked up the ceiling and quietly sniffed. "Okay," she murmured, trying to restrain her tear ducts and keep her voice from breaking.

At that moment, all that Blake wanted to do was wrap Yang in the best and biggest _"Yang-Xiao-Long-Bear-Hug (c)_ _"_ that she could muster, apologize for being the reason that she lost her arm, and beg for her forgiveness. She wanted to reassure her that everything was going to be okay, promise that she would make it up to her, and solemnly swear that she would never, ever, leave again. She wanted to sing the little song that Yang would sing whenever anyone was sad or upset. However, she figured that Yang was still mad at her, and probably wouldn't believe her if she told her all that now.

Now, dear reader, Yang _was_ still upset with her, but at the same time, she was tired of being upset with her. Half of her wanted to stay mad at Blake and hold a grudge against her, not for the sake of her arm, but because she _left_ when she needed her the most. The other half of her, however, wanted to wrap her up in the biggest _"Yang-Xiao-Long-Bear-Hug (c)_ _"_ that she had ever given and beg her to never leave again, but her doubt—which had only grown over the course of the year apart—kept her from doing so.

I understand, dear reader, that to you, it might seem like the easiest thing in the world for them to just talk things out and for them to finally share a _"Yang-Xiao-Long-Bear-Hug (c)_ _."_ But! You and I only think that because we probably have not been in a situation like the one that these two women are in, because we desperately want to see them work out their problems and become the best of friends again and don't care how it happens just so long as it happens, and because books, TV, and fanfiction have skewed our perception of how relationships work in reality. Sometimes, in the real world, people are able to forgive, forget, and work things out quickly, but most of the time, it takes a while… sometimes a long while.

Blake still wanted to keep her distance in order to keep Yang and the rest of her team safe, but Sun's words explaining how hurtful that really was cycled through her head, telling her to at least _try_ and close the rift between herself and her team. At the same time, Yang wanted stay upset with her former partner, but Weiss's words reminded her to wait and figure out _why_ Blake had left. Needless to say, after being apart for a little over a year, it would take a lot of time, and work, and patience for them to sort things out and be as close as they were once more, but with the help of their friends, they would get there eventually.

Until then, they would take comfort in knowing that they were at least reunited and would actually have a _chance_ to work things out.

Still staring up at the ceiling, a couple tears rolled down Yang's face and into her ears as she gave the brunette's hand a gentle squeeze and murmured, "Thanks, Blake."

Blake squeezed her hand tightly in return. "You're welcome, Yang."

 **XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxX**

 **Thus endeth the chapter. I hope you enjoyed it. Better buckle up, because there's a lot I want to talk about in this Author's Note.**

 **First of all, if Yang's dream didn't make sense, I would like to remind you that dreams normally don't make sense, and trying to decipher their meanings usually either makes a big mess or leaves the dreamer even more confused, and it is best to just ignore them. Especially nightmares, for our enemy—The Devil—often sends them to us to make us frightened and despair.**

 **Secondly, I've tried really, really hard to make the interactions between Blake and Yang as realistic, as accurate, and as in character as possible. I know, I want them to talk things out and share a** _ **"Yang-Xiao-Long-Bear-Hug (c)**_ _ **,"**_ **too, but I think that at this point in time, it would probably be too much too soon.**

 **Thirdly, I tried to add more dialogue and personal headcanons, but at this point in time, things are still kinda** _ **eeehhh**_ **between them, so there was only so much dialogue I could add. I'm sorry about that, but on that note…**

 **Fourth, I previously said that this would probably be two** _ **maybe**_ **three chapters long because I was thinking of having Yang's nightmare and Blake struggling to comfort her be their own separate chapters, but I ended up combining them so that y'all would have a longer chapter to read. But, if you want, I can make a third chapter covering how I think the talk between Yang and Blake will go (which will have a whole lot of dialogue)… :3 If you want me to… :3 Let me know… :3**

 **Fifth, anymore of you on board for "BeeFF's" being the official BrOTP tag for Blake and Yang? Please let me know.**

 **Sixth and lastly, I hope you all enjoyed this chapter. :-) Please let me know what you thought of it in the review box below, and please don't forget to tell me your favorite/least favorite parts, comments, suggestions, and to point out any grammar errors you may find. Your reviews never fail to brighten my day, even it's just a word or two. :-)**

 **Thank you all so much for reading and God bless you and your day.**

 **Sincerely, The Professor.**


	3. Chapter Three: Making the Bridge Across

**Hey, guys! I'm late. Really late. I know. I'm sorry. Please forgive me. Excuses will come later, y'all have waited too long for this chapter so I'm just gonna save the chitchat for the final author's note.**

 **Enjoy! :-)**

 **XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxX**

 _ **Chapter Three: Making the Bridge Across.**_

 _Theme Song: Everything Stays (from Adventure Time) by Rebecca Sugar._

"'… _Have you_ _forgotten all the talks we've had together, the vows we made to be like sisters to one another, all the hours we spent together, wishing that we never had to say goodbye—have you forgotten? Our friendship in our schooldays, our childhood innocence? …We seemed to have two separate bodies, but we had one heart. Do you want to destroy our old friendship by joining these men to insult your poor friend? It's not friendly, and it's not ladylike. All women would be angry with you for doing it, even though I'm the only one who's hurt by it.'"_

The gentle voice of a young woman was heard reading aloud in a small portion of one of Beacon Academy's many gardens. Accompanying the voice were the melodious chirps and tweets of a few dark-winged sparrows and azure-feathered blue jays, as well as the sound of the occasional breeze whispering through the many leaves and branches of the greenery. As the young woman read, this very same breeze—perhaps anxious to find out what happened next in the story—would, every so often, try to turn the pages of the girl's book before she had finished the page she was on. It was a good thing that she was keeping a firm grip on the book as she continued reading; we can't have the wind going around spoiling stories, now can we?

" _Hermia (to Helena): 'You trickster, you snake! You thief of love! What, did you sneak in at night and steal my love's heart from him?'_

" _Helena: 'Oh, that's very nice! You ought to be ashamed of yourself! You're going to make me mad enough to answer you? Fie, fie! You faker, you puppet!'_

" _Hermia: '"Puppet"? Why "Puppet"? … Are you grown so high in his esteem because I am so dwarfish and short? Is that it? So how short am I, you painted maypole? Speak. How short am I? I am not yet so short but that my nails can reach unto thine eyes.'_

" _Helena (to Lysander and Demetrius): 'I pray you, though you mock me, gentlemen, don't let her hurt me. I never was much good with insults. I have no gift at all in shrewishness. I am a right maid for my cowardice. Please don't let her strike me. You perhaps may think that I can take her because she is something shorter than myself.'_

" _Hermia: '"Shorter!" Hark, again!'_

" _Helena: 'Good Hermia, please don't act so bitter toward me. I always loved you, Hermia, and gave you advice. I never did anything to hurt you… Now just let me go quietly back to Athens. I'll carry my mistakes back with me. I won't follow you anymore. Please let me go. You see how naïve and foolish I've been.'_

" _Hermia: 'Well, get out of here then! What's keeping you?'_

" _Helena: 'My stupid heart, which I'm leaving behind here.'"_

As the young woman read on, the pair of fur covered ears that were perched atop her head would twitch every once in a while from being tickled by the grass that she laid on—a small price to pay for taking off her bow. Meanwhile, the hand that wasn't busy holding the open book above her face was absentmindedly scratching the scalp of the companion who rested her blonde head on her stomach. Neither of them were very concerned about getting grass stains on their school uniforms; clothes could be washed anytime, but they _didn't_ always have the time and fair weather to read outside together, so they grasped the opportunity while they could.

Since the majority of the student body was elsewhere doing whatever it was that they needed to do, the two young women had the garden mostly to themselves at the moment. Occasionally, one or two students would walk by on the path that was a stone's throw away from where they were resting, but other than that, it was just them and the flowers. And oh how pretty the flowers were! There were numerous yellow rose bushes surrounded by yellow, white, and scarlet zinnias, as well as some oak-leaved geranium scattered here and there. The perimeter of the garden was marked by tall arborvitae—a juniper-like evergreen tree—along with the occasional bush of coral colored roses. These plants and blossoms were the only other audience around as the dark haired young woman read on.

" _Lysander: 'Be not_ _afraid._ _Hermia shall not harm thee, Helena.'_

" _Demetrius (to_ _Lysander): 'No, sir, she shall not, even if you try to help her.'_

" _Helena: 'Oh, when you_ _get her angry, she's a good fighter, and vicious too. She was a hellcat in school. And though she be but little, she is fierce.'_

" _Hermia: '"Little" again? Nothing but "little" and "short"!—Why are you letting her insult me thus? Let me at her!'"_

As the young woman read more and more, her blonde companion's brow began to furrow more and more into a most quizzical expression while she stared up at the sky.

" _Hermia: 'All this fighting is because of you. Stay where you are.'_

" _Helena: 'I'm not sticking around here anymore. … Your hands than mine are quicker for a fray. My legs are longer though, to run away.'_

" _Exit Helena._

" _Hermia: 'I am amazed and know not what to say.'"_

"Blake?" the blonde finally murmured, turning her head to look at her friend's face.

"Yes, Yang?" the brunette asked in return, moving the book away from her face and tilting her head to look her friend in the eye.

"Please don't take this the wrong way..." Yang hesitantly began, "but… this edition of _A Midsummer Night's Dream_ stinks."

"I know," Blake replied.

"Like, come on, people! Either use Elizabethan English or use modern English; don't keep going back and forth all the time."

"And if _that_ isn't bad enough," the cat faunus added, "I think the editors cut out a bunch of stuff, as well."

"Why do you keep that copy?" the brawler asked. "Why don't you get a copy with a translation that you like?"

Placing her bookmarker in its place, Blake flipped to the first page of the book—a blank piece of paper right before the page with the book title—on which was the inscription,

" _Dear B._

 _Thanks for being different from the Atlas girls and for being a true friend to me._

— _I."_

Blake smiled a little as she answered, "Because an old friend gave it to me a long time ago as a gift. I don't know why, but to me, to get another version of it would make me feel like I was being rude or betraying her in some way."

"Hm," Yang hummed as she absorbed her companion's words, "I guess that makes sense."

Placing her book aside on the grass, Blake started using both hands to scratch at the blonde's scalp. Closing her eyes, the cat faunus released a contented sigh as a happy smile grew on her face. Yang closed her eyes as well with a peaceful smile on her own lips before spreading her arms out on the grass, relishing in the feel of the gentle fingers running through her bangs.

For several minutes, both young women reveled in the comfortable silence that settled between them. The twitter of the birds, the whisper of the breeze, and the occasional murmur of students talking in the distance were the only sounds to be heard.

Content to just lay there and sun bathe, the two began to grow drowsier and drowsier, and they probably would have fallen asleep, were it not for the curiosity of the blonde.

"Hey, Blake?" Yang murmured.

"Hmmm?" the brunette hummed in response without opening her eyes.

"Have you ever thought about the meanings behind different flowers?"

The words of a textbook from a long time ago came to Blake's mind: _"The black belladonna flower, also known as deadly nightshade, is a highly toxic plant. In ancient times, this plant was responsible for the deaths of many infants and children, who looked at the berry and thought it good to eat due to it looking much like the blueberry. Because of this and because of the quickness of death, the black belladonna flower is considered one of the deadliest plants in Remnant."_

"Not really," the cat faunus fibbed.

"Well," the brawler continued, "I couldn't help but notice that all the plants around us have a common theme in their meanings."

"I didn't know you liked studying flowers," Blake commented.

"Eh, it's a hobby… it _stemmed_ from my dad's love of gardening. I guess you could say it _grew on me!_ "

Blake groaned. "Uhg, that was awful."

" _Awful_ ly good!"

"Weren't you saying something about the plants having a common meaning or something?" the cat faunus reminded her.

"Yes, I was."

"What's their common meaning?" she asked as she finally opened her eyes.

"Friendship," the blonde answered as she opened her own eyes as well. "They all have to do with friendship in some way, shape, or form. Like those flowers over there," she sat up and pointed to the zinnias. "The white zinnia represents thinking of a friend that's not with you at the moment, the red zinnia stands for a friend's constant companionship, and the yellow zinnia stands for the daily remembrance of a friend, or thinking about them every day."

Blake sat up so she could get a proper look at the flowers her friend was pointing at, and hugged her knees to her chest as she mused on the blonde's words. "What about those flowers over there?" she asked, pointing at some of the other blossoms.

" _Those_ flowers?" Yang asked while pointing at the roses.

"Mhm," Blake hummed in confirmation.

"Well, the coral or light pink colored roses represent friendship, modesty, and sympathy, and the yellow roses stand for friendship, joy, and the promise of a new beginning. Some of the sources I found also said that they're a way of welcoming someone back."

"What about those pink and white flowers?"

"Those are oak-leaved geranium; they stand for true friendship."

"What about those trees over there?"

"Those are arborvitae—and they're not really trees, they're more like a really tall bush—and they represent unchanging friendship."

"What about the grass?" Blake jokingly asked with a teasing smile.

Picking up on the brunette's joking tone, the blonde moved to sit cross-legged next to her before replying with a wide grin, "Grass represents the place you sit with your friend while they read to you on a sunny day."

Blake chuckled fondly and the two fell into a companionable silence once more. Yang tilted her head back as she leaned back on her hands, closing her eyes as she let the sun bathe her face in warmth. Meanwhile, Blake hugged her knees closer to her chest, bowing her head so the sun could warm her hair and ears.

"Thanks again for reading to me, Blake," Yang stated at length.

"It was my pleasure," the cat faunus began, "I love reading to you." There was another moment of silence before Blake timidly murmured with half-drooping ears, "Yang?"

"Yeah, Blakey?" the blonde asked, using the nickname for her friend.

"I never thanked you for convincing me to go to the dance."

"Oh, don't worry about it; you're welcome," Yang replied with a beaming smile, "anything for my partner."

"No, really," the brunette persisted, "I mean it. Thank you. I understand that it probably wasn't very easy for you to tell me about your mom… either of them."

Scooting closer, the brawler playfully bumped her shoulder against Blake's, making her look her in the eye. "Hey, it's okay," she reassured her, "I trust you."

There was a pause before the cat faunus' ear twitched and she asked, "Yang, if there was something really important that you wanted to tell someone, but you were scared of it coming out wrong—and you knew for a _fact_ that there was a very specific way you could be misunderstood and come across the wrong way—how would you go about saying it?"

"Well…" Yang thoughtfully began, "first of all, I would spend a lot of time thinking about what I wanted to say and how I would say it."

"I've already _done_ that and it just makes me more worried that I'll say it wrong!" Blake interrupted.

"I wasn't _done_ _yet_ , Li'l Miss Impatient," the boxer jokingly scolded. "The second thing I would do would be to boil down what I wanted to say into something short, simple, and clear.—Any other stuff I wanted to add could be talked about later.—And then I would simply take a deep breath, tell that person the boiled down summary that I'd prepared, and then ask if they got it… Get it?"

Blake nodded. "Mhm. I think so. Thanks, Yang."

"No problem, Blakey… So… who's the person you need to talk to about 'something important,'?" the blonde inquired before quickly adding, "If you don't mind me asking."

"I don't mind," Blake replied. "I wanted to talk to _you_ about something, actually."

Arching an eyebrow in both curiosity and slight confusion, Yang turned herself to face her partner more directly and looked her in the eye before gently and patiently asking, "What do you wanna talk about?"

With her ears flat against her hair and her head still bowed mostly toward her knees, the cat faunus glanced her eyes up to meet the brawler's gaze, holding it for a moment before nervously glancing away. She _thought_ she'd found a way to say what she wanted to say in a way that wouldn't be misinterpreted… _but what if it still came out wrong?_ And what if her words brought serious consequences to Yang if _**he**_ ever caught up to her?! …But what if he never found her and now was her chance to find happiness? Her thoughts warred back and forth with each other.

Sensing her nervousness, Yang placed a gentle hand on her shoulder. The unexpected contact made Blake jump a little as her gaze met Yang's once more. The blonde gave a small but reassuring smile as she quietly repeated her advice from before, "Take a deep breath… boil down what you want to say… then _say it_. You can talk to me about anything, and if I don't understand, then I'll ask you to explain. Everything is going to be _okay_."

Somehow, even with the absence of proof, Yang's encouragement was all it took to convince Blake that everything _would_ indeed be okay, that _**he**_ would never find her and take everything away, that she really _could_ start fresh here at Beacon… and that her words wouldn't come out wrong.

Taking a deep breath, Blake sat up straight, willing her ebony ears to do the same, before looking her partner in the eye and stating, "Yang… you are my best friend and the sister I never had, and I love you." She was pretty sure that she wouldn't be misunderstood if she worded it like _that_.

Smiling softly, Yang scooted closer and wrapped her arms around the other girl's neck and shoulders in a hug. It wasn't one of her trademark bear hugs; it was gentler, more tender, but tight enough for it to be comforting all the same.

Blake returned it.

"I love you, too, Blake," Yang finally murmured in return. "You're my best friend, too."

The brunette smiled, and when she felt the blonde press a quick, sisterly kiss against her temple, her smile widened and she hugged her a little more tightly.

"See? I _told you_ everything would be okay," Yang murmured as she began to gently scratch the base of one of her cat ears.

"Was it silly of me to be so nervous about saying that?" Blake asked.

"Eh. Maybe a _little_ ," the brawler honestly began, "but I don't mind."

Relaxing even more, both because of her words and the gentle scratches at her ear, the cat faunus returned the affectionate gesture by carefully petting her best friend's long hair.

"Are you _purring?_ "

"N-No, I'm not."

"You were purring!"

"No, I wasn't."

"Then what was that rumbling noise?"

"Thunder."

"There's not a cloud in the sky!"

"It was your stomach."

"Blake, you were purring, admit it!"

"No, I was not."

"Blaaaake!"

" _Yaaaang!_ "

"You are the _worst!_ "

"Not my fault."

" _ **Uhg!**_ "

 **XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxX**

At long last, Team RWBY and Co. had arrived in Atlas. The troupe was currently staying in the visitors' wing at Atlas Academy as Ozpin, Qrow, and General Ironwood discussed the next course of action.

During the entire trip there—it had taken them a few weeks to make it to Atlas—Blake and Yang had done nothing but make awkward small talk. Every once in a while, one of them would hint at what they wanted—and needed—to talk about, but that's all they were: just hints… and they did nothing to help the awkward tension, which was so thick that Ruby could probably cut it with her scythe if she wanted to.

She'd had just about enough of this.

"BFF's _aren't_ supposed to have awkward small talk, Weiss," she complained to the ex-heiress while pacing the length of the guest room. "BFF's are supposed to smile, and laugh, and joke, and hug, and tease, and have tickle fights, not…" she waved her hands around in frustration, " _ **THIS!**_ "

"They're just not ready to talk things over yet, Ruby," Weiss stated from where she sat gracefully on her bed. "Give them time. I'm sure they'll be ready soon enough."

"Well, then when _will_ they be ready? When they're dying and aren't strong enough to talk?" the team leader questioned, crossing her arms over her chest. "Every time we hear about Salem, we find out that she's more dangerous than we thought she was… And honestly? I'm scared, Weiss. I'm _so_ scared. I'm scared that not all of us are going to make it out of the final battle to live happily ever after. I _hope_ we all get to live happily ever after, and I'm trying _so hard_ to believe that we will… but after Beacon fell…" she trailed off as she flopped down on her bed, her limbs spread out like a starfish. "At the tournament, Penny told me that she wanted to transfer to Beacon and that she'd tell me her plan later… That was the last time I spoke to her… I never found out how she planned to convince General Ironwood to let her transfer." With a look of both sorrow and pity on her features, Weiss got up and went over to the brunette, sitting next to her and placing a reassuring hand on her shoulder. "I don't want Blake and Yang to have to go through something like that," the reaper finished with a sniffle.

 _Wow,_ Weiss thought to herself, _I don't think I've ever heard Ruby sound so… mature before… I don't know whether that makes me relieved or sad._ "I don't wish that upon them, either," she agreed aloud.

"Do you…" the brunette hesitated. "Do you think I should… I don't know, give them a little nudge or something?"

"Define 'a little nudge or something.'"

"Maybe handcuff 'em together and hide the key until they talk things out?"

The ex-heiress's mind instantly flashed back to when the hyperactive scythe wielder had handcuffed the both of _them_ together.

"No."

" _Awww,_ " Ruby whined.

 _Well… she's_ _a little_ _more mature than she was at Beacon._ "How else can we get them to talk to each other?" the fencer mused, laying back on the bed.

Ruby's brow furrowed in thought for a moment or two before the corner of her mouth rose in a smirk.

"I have an idea."

 **XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxX**

Several minutes later, Ruby and Weiss agreed on a better way to make their teammates talk to each other. Weiss had retrieved a book from the school library and offered it to Blake, suggesting that she would enjoy reading it in the school garden. The cat faunus accepted the book happily and thanked her, stating that it would be nice to read outside before the weather turned sour, as a storm and possible blizzard was heading their way.

Once Blake had seated herself on one of the marble benches along the garden's path and started reading, the ex-heiress made sure she was well out of ear-shot before she whispered to her partner over her scroll, "Snow White to Rose Red; Belle is in position."

"Rose Red to Snow White;" the reaper whispered in return from the other end of the scroll, "I'm gonna try and get Goldilocks over to Belle's location. Over. Kshh!"

"Ruby, this isn't a walkie-talkie. You don't need to say 'over' or make the static sound," Weiss gently reprimanded.

"Awww, but it's fun! It makes it more… _authentic_ ," Ruby countered, proud at her use of one of the other girl's "fancy vocab words."

"Just hush before they hear us!" Weiss hissed.

"Alright, fine! …Over, kshh!"

"Ruby Rose!"

 **XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxX**

"I'm not ready," Yang stated from where she sat on her bed in the guest room that she shared with her partner.

"What do you **mean** you're not ready?" Ruby asked in exasperation from where she stood in front of her, brow furrowed, arms crossed.

"I mean I'm not ready," the blonde repeated quietly—almost timidly—as she gazed up at her little sister with an apologetic expression.

"When _will you_ be ready? What are you waiting for?" the brunette questioned as she sat next to her sibling on the bed. "Just… _**do it!**_ "

"I'm…" the blonde sighed as she bowed her head, leaning her elbows on her knees, "I'm trying to find the right words to say."

There was a pause as the team leader absorbed her older sister's words. Meanwhile, the brawler had buried her face in her hands, gently rubbing her tired face with fingers both of flesh and of metal.

After many moments, Ruby quietly inquired, "Remember Dr. Oobleck's history class?"

"How could I _not_?" Yang began in reply. "Those essays he made us write were _insane_."

"Well… I remember once we had to write a paper about the Mistrali war effort during the Great War—"

"Uhg, that one was _so hard_."

"I know, right? Anyways, we had to write a paper about it and I didn't want to do it so I put it off. Weiss kept nagging, and nagging, and nagging me all week about how it's better to get those kinds of stuff done early, but I didn't listen to her. Then, _right before it was due_ I realized, 'This paper is due tomorrow at ten-thirty in the morning and it's ten o'clock at night and I haven't started it yet. And I'll have _no_ time to write it tomorrow.' I got all my stuff for his class together and I sat down in front of one of the computers in the library and began to try and write it…

"After about an hour, Weiss found me and said, 'What are you doing, you _dolt_?!'"

"Uhg, you've even got her nagging voice on point," Yang complained.

"Thank you," Ruby beamed. "Anyways, she said, 'What are you doing here, you _dolt_?! It's eleven o'clock at night! Why aren't you in the dorm?' and I said that I was writing the paper and she said, 'All I see is a blank Macrosoft Parchment document! Why are you just sitting here staring at a blank page?!'

"'I'm waiting for the right words to come.'

"And I'll never forget what she said to me, Yang; she said, 'You _dolt_ , you can't just wait for the right words to come! You have to just start writing!'

"'But what if what I write stinks?'

"'All first drafts stink, Ruby. That's why second drafts exist.'"

Yang interrupted, "And then you said, 'What's a draft?'"

Ruby laughed, then continued, "I asked her to help me write my paper, and that was the first time Weiss refused to help me with something I was stuck on. She told me that she was tired of watching me put stuff off until the night before and then come to her for help at some ' _ungodly_ hour of the night,' so she said that the only way for me to learn not to wait 'til the last minute was by suffering through by myself and dealing with the consequences…" The brunette sighed, beginning to feel the exhaustion she felt then simply by recounting the story. "At around midnight, Professor Goodwitch found me and asked me why I was up past curfew. I told her about the paper and she said that that was my own fault. After much use of the puppy dog eyes, she said that she would give me ten more minutes before she had to walk me back to the dorm room. I typed as fast as I could, but I wasn't able to finish the paper in time. I printed it out, stapled it, and Professor Goodwitch walked me back to our dorm… I got a C– on that paper… Aaaaaand our combined grades as a team went down a bit because of it."

Yang leaned back on her hands. "Is the point of this story looming somewhere on the horizon?" she asked, wondering what it had to do with the situation at hand.

"Yeah… The more we hear about Salem, the more we realize that she's more dangerous than we could ever imagine and that her goal to destroy everything and everyone is very, very real, and the fall of Beacon taught me that life is much shorter than we think it is, and that we have no idea when we'll die… What I'm _trying_ to say is… Well, you and Blake have a 'paper' you need to 'write' and you haven't even started yet. None of us knows when it's 'due,' but it could be a lot sooner than we think. I don't want you and Blake to 'walk into class' and realize that 'the paper was due today' and then 'get an F,' because the 'grade you get' affects the rest of us, too." Ruby looked over at her sister, searching her face for a sign of understanding. "Get it?"

Yang processed her little sister's words, running the translation of the brunette's unexpected metaphor through her brain. _Blake and I have stuff we need to talk about and we've been putting it off, which is bad because we don't know when we're going to die, but considering how serious a threat Salem is, it could be sooner than we think… Ruby doesn't want either of us to die before we have a chance to work things out… and the tension between us is affecting everyone else…_

"I get it," she finally replied, meeting her little sister's gaze. "…I'll go talk to her."

With a smile of relief on her face, the reaper latched herself to the boxer's side in a hug. "Thank you, Yang," she murmured.

"You're welcome, Ruby," the brawler softly replied with a small smile on her lips while wrapping her arms gently around the younger girl. Holding her to her side, the blonde pressed a kiss to the top of her little sister's head, then another, and another. "Have I told you today that I love you?" she murmured into her hair.

"I think you have," the younger sister softly replied.

"Well, I love you very, very much," the older sister reassured.

"I love you, too, Yang," Ruby stated with a smile. After a few more moments of snuggling into her sister's side, the scythe wielder softly ordered, "Go talk to her.'

"Okay,"

"And no awkward small talk, okay?" she added while pulling away slightly. "I want you to talk about whatever it is that's bothering the both of you so that you can be best friends again."

"Okay," the blonde murmured with another sigh of resignation. "Where is she?"

 **XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxX**

Slowly walking down the garden's gravel path, Yang could see her partner in the distance. She was sitting on a white marble bench by a bunch of white tulips reading a book, just as Ruby had said. Seeing the twitch underneath the scarf that the brunette was wearing over her ears, she figured that Blake had heard her coming.

Knowing that the majority of the people in Atlas weren't very civil towards faunus, Weiss had pleaded for Blake to hide her ears. It didn't take much begging considering the reputation that the Atlesians had, and Weiss had provided her with a dark grey scarf with the Schnee's trademark snowflake on it. "No one would think that a faunus would hide their traits with something made by the Schnee's," the ex-heiress had explained.

Knowing that her partner was there, Blake briefly glanced sideways at her before turning her attention back to the book she held in front of her face.

Or at least… she _tried_ to.

Her gaze was fixed on the page before her, but she couldn't focus enough to actually _read_. She just stared at the words, too nervous to acknowledge her partner, let alone start a conversation.

Finally, Yang stood just a couple feet away. She could tell that the other woman wasn't reading her book because her eyes just stared at the page instead of darting back and forth from left to right. At long last, she broke the awkward silence by timidly murmuring, "Hey, Blake."

"H-Hi, Yang," the cat faunus stuttered in return, still staring at the page.

There was an awkward pause before the blonde asked while fiddling with her hands, "What'cha doin'?"

"Just reading," the brunette replied.

"Ah." _Of course, duh! Didn't you see the book she was holding?! When people hold books they usually do this thing called, oh, I don't know,_ _ **read**_ _! Way to go Yang Xiao Long! You're fulfilling the dumb-blonde stereotype!_ "May I please sit with you?" she quietly asked, motioning to the bench with her prosthetic hand.

The other woman hesitated for a moment, a bit taken aback that her partner was going out of her way to spend time with her. Meeting her gaze for a moment, she scooted over and stuttered, "Uh, s-s-sure, of course, g-go right ahead," before burying her face in the book once more.

"Thanks," the brawler murmured before seating herself on the hard bench.

"You're welcome," the cat faunus quietly replied.

There was a pause for about a minute as Yang fidgeted, drumming her fingers on her knees as she gazed about the garden aimlessly before turning her head towards her companion and asking, "What're you reading?"

" _As You Like It_ by William Spearemint," the cat faunus replied.

"Oh… Can you please read it to me?"

"Uh… sure. Do you want me to start at the beginning, or—"

"Just keep reading where you are, I don't mind."

"Okay… _'Look here comes the duke.'_

" _Enter Duke Frederick with lords._

" _Celia: 'With his eyes full of anger.'_

" _Duke Frederick: 'Mistress, dispatch you with your safest haste, and get you from our court.'_

" _Rosalind: 'Me, uncle?'_

" _Duke Frederick: 'You, cousin. Within these ten days, if thou art found so near our public court as twenty miles, thou diest for it.'"_

As Blake read, Yang looked up at the sky. Despite it being only early evening, it was rather dark out. The entire sky had been overcast by a vast blanket of grey clouds all day, serving as a harbinger to the storm that would probably arrive soon. A cool wind blew through both the foliage and the women's hair, making their long locks sway as the brunette continued to read.

" _Rosalind: 'I do beseech your Grace, tell me what crime I have committed. If with myself I hold intelligence or have acquaintance with mine own desires, if that I do not dream or be not frantic—as I do trust I am not—then, dear uncle, never so much as in a thought unborn did I offend your Highness.'_

" _Duke Frederick: 'Thus do all traitors. If their purgation did consist in words, they are as innocent as grace itself. Let it suffice thee that I trust thee not.'_

" _Rosalind: 'Yet your mistrust cannot make me a traitor. Tell me whereon the likelihood depends.'_

" _Duke Frederick: 'Thou art thy father's daughter. There's enough.'_

" _Rosalind: 'So was I when your Highness took his dukedom. So was I when your Highness banished him. Treason is not inherited, my lord, or if we did derive it from our parents, what's that to me? My father was no traitor. Then, good my liege, mistake me not so much to think my poverty is treacherous.'"_

As she continued to listen to the story, Yang began to let her eyes wander over the flowers surrounding them. There were all sorts of white blossoms, which was fitting considering how Atlas was usually associated with the color white because of the kingdom's typically cold weather. In front of the two women on the other side of the path were some white vinca, some white hydrangeas mingled with a few lilies of the valley, and on either side of the bench that they sat on were a cluster of white tulips. Her face fell as she recalled the meaning behind that specific flower, gently brushing the back of the fingers of her left hand—the non-prosthetic hand—against the petals as her partner read on.

" _Celia: 'Dear sovereign, hear me speak.'_

" _Duke Frederick: 'Ay, Celia, we stayed her for your sake. Else had she with her father been banished together.'_

" _Celia: 'I did not entreat to have her stay. It was your pleasure and your own remorse. I was too young at the time to value her, but now I know her. If she be a traitor, why so am I. We have always slept, woken, learned, played, and ate together. And wheresoever we went, we went together and inseparable.'_

" _Duke Frederick: 'She's too devious for thee… Her very silence and her patience speak to the people, and they pity her. Thou art a fool. She robs thee of thy name, and thou wilt show more bright and seem more virtuous when she is gone. Then open not thy lips. Firm and irrevocable is my doom which I have passed upon her. She is banished.'_

" _Celia: 'Pronounce that sentence then on me, my liege. I cannot live out of her company.'_

" _Duke Frederick: 'You are a fool.—You, niece, provide yourself. If you outstay the time, upon mine honor and in the greatness of my word, you die.'_

" _Duke Frederick and lords exit."_

Yang sighed. She couldn't just sit here and listen to Blake read to her for the rest of the day—however much she may want to. She promised Ruby that there would be no more small talk, and so far they hadn't really done anything _except_ have small talk. _But what should I say that'll get the conversation rolling in the right direction?_ the boxer thought to herself. Should she start by talking about the weather? _...Nah, too cliché._ Should she just cut to the chase and ask her why she ran? _…No, too sudden._ She'd think of something.

Blake kept reading, oblivious to her partner's inner conflict. _"Celia: 'O my poor Rosalind, whither wilt thou go? Wilt thou change fathers? I will give thee mine. I charge thee, be not thou more grieved than I am.'_

" _Rosalind: 'I have more cause.'_

" _Celia: 'Thou hast not, cousin. Prithee, be cheerful. Know'st thou not the duke hath banished me, his daughter?'_

" _Rosalind: 'That he hath not.'_

" _Celia: 'No, hath not? You lack then the love which teacheth thee that thou and I are one. Shall we be sundered? Shall we part, sweet girl? No, let my father seek another heir. Therefore devise with me how we may fly, whither to go, and what to bear with us, and do not seek to take your burden upon you, to bear your griefs yourself and leave me out. For, by this heaven, now at our sorrows pale, say what thou canst, I'll go along with thee.'"_

"I've missed this," Yang quietly interrupted.

"Missed what?" Blake asked, lowering the book to look at her companion.

"Our reading time together," the blonde clarified, looking her in the eye. The corner of her mouth turned upwards in a small, sad smile as she added, "But I've missed _you_ more."

With her own sad smile on her lips, the brunette closed the book, placing it down on the bench beside her as she murmured in return, "I've missed you, too."

There was a pause…

 _Now what?!_ The boxer internally screamed. An awkward silence settled between the two women as both struggled to think of something to say.

Finally, in a desperate attempt to break the awkwardness, Yang quickly picked a couple of the white tulips from the bush beside her and held them out to her teammate.

The cat faunus arched an eyebrow curiously as one of her cat ears twitched beneath her scarf. "For _me_?"

"Mhm," the brawler hummed in reply, nervously twirling the blossoms in her metal fingertips.

"Thank you," Blake stated, not knowing what else to say, before taking the flowers. Suddenly, a thought struck her and her eyes widened. "You're not going to kiss me, are you?"

Yang looked at her as if she'd just said that the grass was purple. "What? Like on the mouth? Ew, no, of course not. What on earth gave you _that_ idea?"

"Well, you gave me flowers, and _normally_ people only give flowers to a romantic love interest, so I thought—"

"I'm from _Vale_ , Blake, people in Vale give flowers to friends and family all the time," the blonde explained.

"I didn't know that," the brunette defended, crossing her arms over her chest—the tulips still held securely in one hand.

"You mean to tell me that back at Beacon, you didn't see Jaune handing out flowers 'n' stuff to his friends on Valentine's Day?!" the brawler asked in shock, unaware that she was beginning to raise her voice.

"I was in detention for falling asleep in class!" the cat faunus defended once more, her own voice starting to grow louder.

"What about the bouquet of blue and purple irises he left outside our dorm for us all?!"

"I thought he left those for Weiss!"

"What about the flowers Ruby and I left on your desks?!"

"I thought Weiss put them there to try and brighten up our dorm or something!"

"No, Ruby and I put them there as Valentine's Day gifts for you guys! Oh, my _gosh_ , a girl can't even give her friend a stinkin' _flower_ without it coming across the wrong way! What's this world coming to?!" the blonde exclaimed while running her fingers through her bangs in exasperation.

"Look, I'm sorry!" the brunette countered, tightening her arms around herself, her shoulders arching with tension as a glare made its home on her face. "Before I went to Haven, a girl that I'd known for years admitted to having a crush on me, okay? It was kind of a big shock since I never had any idea she felt that way, and it _didn't_ help that she was trying to kill my parents and send me back to Adam at the time! I've been trying to be more aware of other people and their body language since then."

There was a moment of silence as Yang took in what the cat faunus said before she looked her in the eyes and questioned calmly yet with barely contained fury, "She… was trying… to do… _**what?!**_ "

"Yang, _please_ don't be mad at her," Blake pleaded with outstretched hands, as if she were trying to calm a wild animal. "She and I talked things over and everything is forgiven now. _Please_ don't be upset with her."

"I've got _**every right**_ to be upset with her!" the boxer shouted. Her eyes turned a deep crimson as she waved her arms around and continued to yell, "If she'd tried to kill _**my**_ family and send _**me**_ to that… that _**jerk**_ —" _because I know better than to say what I really want to call him out loud,_ "—you'd be _**just**_ as ticked off as _**I**_ am…" She met her teammate's pleading gaze with a fury filled glare, her lungs heaving with anger as an awkward quiet settled between them for a couple seconds. Soon, however, her eyes returned to a calmer yet still upset pink and her breathing slowed as her look of rage and fury tapered off into a more solemn, more guilty gaze as she murmured, "I am sick and tired of finding out about all these horrible things that're happening to you and not being able to do anything to protect you." There was another pause as Blake's expression softened even more, guilt tugging at her heart. "Speaking of which," the blonde began almost too casually, "how's your side doing?"

The cat faunus looked confused for a moment. _When did I ever get hurt in my si—oh._ She remembered. _Adam._ "It's doing okay," she began, "a surgeon looked me over and patched me up after…" she hesitantly trailed off, "well, _you know_ … H-How are _you_ doing?"

"I'm doing okay," Yang replied, toying with the leather wrist-guard on her right hand. "Having this new arm really helps out a lot."

"Where'd you get it from?" the brunette asked.

"General Ironwood sent it to me in the mail," the blonde answered.

"I thought that Atlas had closed it's borders."

"He sent it to me before the borders closed… but now that I have it, I've gone from being a one arm-y woman to a one woman army again, ha!" She gave a dry chuckle at the joke, and Blake smiled with her—as dumb as they were, she'd missed Yang's jokes.

There was yet another awkward silence for a few moments as a cold wind occasionally blew through the garden, shaking the branches of the tree that grew behind the marble bench on which they sat.

Yang sighed as she bowed her head slightly, remembering her little sister's words from earlier. It was time for her to stop waiting for the right words to come and just "start writing."

Without moving her head, the blonde raised her now lilac—if not blue—eyes to look at her partner's face as she timidly asked, "Why did you leave?"

She didn't get an explanation from her own mother, though… would she get one from Blake? She desperately hoped so.

The brunette's already scared and anxious heart began to race in her ribcage. She would have been lying if she said that she hadn't known that the question was coming—on the contrary, she had been anticipating it—but she hadn't expected it to come so suddenly. Why was she scared then? Because her answer to Yang's question had a lot to do with the relationship they had had before as best friends, and she wasn't sure if they even _were_ best friends anymore, or if Yang even still _wanted_ to be best friends with her anymore.

Looking her teammate in the eye and seeing her timid expression, the cat faunus realized that the brawler was just as nervous and scared as she was. It was kind of reassuring in a way, knowing that she wasn't the only one who was anxious and scared, but at the same time, she didn't want Yang to be scared, so, without breaking eye contact, Blake quietly answered, "I ran because I love you… you, and Ruby, and Weiss… all of you. You three are the siblings I never had, and I didn't—and still don't—want you to get hurt again because of me."

"By Adam Taurus or the White Fang in general?" Yang inquired as she scooted an inch or two closer to her partner on the bench. It _might_ not have been the best thing to say or ask considering what Blake had just said, but she honestly didn't entirely know how to respond, and taking a moment to figure out how would have made another awkward silence that would have taken away her courage to speak. It was kind of too late for her to take her words back anyway as Blake was already answering the question.

"Both of them, but mainly Adam."

There was a pause.

"I've… never really been too good at paying attention to the news," the blonde awkwardly began as she sheepishly rubbed the back of her neck with her left hand, "sooo I don't really know that much about Adam Taurus. I mean, I know he has a lot of power in the White Fang, but… how do you know him? Why exactly is he a big deal to you—and therefore us—and why on Remnant would you running away have kept us safe from him?"

Blake took a slow, deep breath before letting it out through her nostrils as a long sigh. "Adam Taurus," she began quietly, as if saying his name too loudly would make that devil appear in their midst, "is the currently missing leader of the White Fang, my former mentor… and my ex-boyfriend."

"Excuse me for saying so, but your ex is a _jerk,_ " Yang commented.

"He deserves a word _much worse_ than 'jerk,'" Blake corrected with a scowl. With another sigh, however, it morphed into a look of pity. "But he wasn't always like this, you know," she murmured. "When I first met him and when I fell in love with him, he was a man bent on equality, justice, and civil rights… but overtime, he became spiteful and bloodthirsty, only caring about revenge against humanity. That's why I left the White Fang behind… he'd changed; what he wanted and what I wanted were no longer the same thing anymore. He wanted war and revenge, and I wanted peace and equality…" As Blake spoke, Yang remembered all the times she had told her and the rest of their team about a "mentor named Adam" or "a previous partner turned bloodthirsty" and the pieces fell into place in her brain as things finally made sense. "Anyways," the cat faunus continued, "he _really_ didn't like that I left him, so when he finally found me again, he wanted revenge against me."

"That doesn't explain why the only way you could protect us from him was by running away!" the brawler countered, not realizing that she was raising her voice again and that her eyes were crimson once more. "If you'd just stayed, we could have protected you from him— _ **I**_ could have protected you from him! Why couldn't you have just run away from _him_ when you saw him again instead of running away from _us?!_ Away from _**me?!**_ "

"Because he was about to kill someone!" the cat faunus shouted as she looked her partner in the eye, her voice breaking a little as she continued. "What sort of huntress would I have been to run away and let an innocent person die because I was afraid?!" She crossed her arms as she finished, "A pretty lousy one, that's what!"

The boxer's shoulders sagged and her face fell as she whispered, "When you ran away, I felt like _I_ died."

Blake's eyes widened in shock at the words.

If the brawler had listened closely enough, she would have been able to hear her partner's heart shattering.

The cat faunus' eyes began to fill to the brim with unshed tears.

"Yang, I—"

Before she could finish, a _**BOOM!**_ of thunder resonated through the air, cutting her off. Looking up the two women suddenly realized how dark it had become, the storm clouds above made the sky look like an enormous, dark grey blanket of wool. A drop of water hit Yang's forehead. Two more fat raindrops landed on Blake's cheek. When three hit the marble bench they sat on with quiet yet audible _splats_ , the two huntresses quickly rose and started running for shelter.

There was a covered sidewalk winding around the building closest to them, which they dashed to, and once they were under the shelter of the low roof, the two women looked out at the garden.

Blake and Yang had gotten under cover just in time, for no sooner had their feet made contact with the concrete then it began to rain in earnest, water pouring from the sky in torrents, shredding leaves and small twigs from the trees and making the many flowers bow almost all the way down to the newly forming mud as lightning crashed and thunder sounded overhead, lighting up the dark sky and shaking the windows of the nearby buildings.

Standing side by side, the two watched the storm from the safety of the covered walkway. Despite their haste, Blake hadn't forgotten to pocket the book Weiss had lent her and still had the pair of tulips grasped in her left hand which she now carefully placed in her other pocket. Clenching her other hand into a fist, the cat faunus hunched her shoulders and bowed her head slightly as she continued to stare out at the rain.

She sighed.

This caught Yang's attention, and she turned her head to see if her partner was okay.

"When you were searching for me the night Beacon fell," Blake murmured just loud enough to be heard above the rain, her face angled so her partner couldn't see it, hidden by the edge of the scarf covering her head, "Adam had just sworn to destroy everything I love, and when he heard you calling out for me and saw how scared I was for you, he figured out that you were—that you _are_ —dear to me, and he said that he was going to start with killing _you_ …" Trailing off, she finally looked up to meet her partner's gaze with a crestfallen expression and wet trails running down her cheeks. Yang couldn't tell if the moisture on her face was the result of the rain or tears, but just the idea of it being the latter made her heart ache for her teammate _._ —Spoiler alert, they were mostly tears.—Blake's voice began to break and new tears welled up as she continued, "…And I would rather _die_ the most painful death that he can come up with than _ever_ see you get hurt." Sobs started tearing themselves from her throat as she scrubbed her eyes with the heel of her hand, trying in vain to wipe away her tears, "I—" she sniffled, "—I _hated_ being away from you, Yang. I missed you and the others _every second,_ b-but if I stayed with you, Adam would have sent someone to kill you."

"You don't know that," the blonde murmured with a frown.

"Yes, I do!" the brunette exclaimed. "Sun followed me to Menagerie and almost never left my side the entire time I was there, and because he followed me, a White Fang member loyal to Adam _stabbed_ him! While I was in Menagerie, I stayed with my parents, and because I was with them, they were nearly _assassinated_ by more of Adam's followers! If you hadn't been looking for me the night Beacon fell, Adam wouldn't have cut your arm off! …I'm _tired_ of seeing the people I love getting hurt because of me… and I'm _just as tired_ of running away… but sometimes I just don't know what else to do." At that, the cat faunus buried her face in her hands and wept bitterly.

Every tear and sob that tore themselves form Blake's eyes and throat crushed Yang's heart like a bear trap. She kept going back and forth in her head, wondering if it would be worth it to try and console her with a hug; if she would return the hug or push her away in fear.

She sighed.

Oh, what a mess their friendship had become.

"You said that you want to keep me safe, right? That you'd rather die than see me get hurt?" the blonde softly asked, bowing her head to try and be eye level with her partner.

Lowering her hands to hug herself, but keeping her head bowed, the brunette sniffled, her face still hidden by her hand as she shakily nodded, "Mhm."

"Well," the brawler began, " _I'd_ rather die than see _you_ hurt, either, and I know that Ruby and Weiss would do the same… Blake, look at me." The cat faunus slowly raised her head to look the boxer in the eye through her tears. The sight of those tears made Yang's gaze soften as she placed her prosthetic hand on the other woman's shoulder, giving what she hoped was a reassuring squeeze. "As painful as it was," she quietly began, "losing my arm for you was _nothing_ ; I was ready to _die for you_ that night." She held her gaze, hoping to portray how earnest she was through her eyes. "I have been ready to die for you ever since we became partners."

"…Why?" Blake timidly asked.

There was a pause as Yang thought.

"I just… wanted to. My dad always tells me that my heart isn't big enough for all the love I have inside it, and… I dunno, I just wanted to. But after we'd been partners for a while and we grew closer, I realized that I wasn't _just_ ready to die for you because you were my partner, but because you had become my _best friend_ in the _whole wide world_." She gave her partner a soft smile. "That's my choice, Blake," she continued while placing her other hand on the woman's other shoulder. "If I die for you or get hurt for you, that's _my_ choice, and I make it _willingly_. I'll stay alive for you as long as I can, Blake Belladonna, but if I have to, I will gladly give my life for you whether you like it or not," her voice began to break a bit, "because you're like a sister to me, too… but it's kinda hard to be there for someone when they run away from you."

"I know," Blake admitted softly as she hung her head in shame with tears still in her eyes. "I'm _sorry_ , Yang," she stated with a quivering voice. "I'm so, _so sorry…_ it was _wrong_ of me to run away, especially when you needed me the most, and _especially_ since Raven and Summer..." she trailed off. Sniffling a little, the cat faunus wiped her eyes with the back of her hand before continuing solemnly, "I don't expect you to forgive me… and I know that I definitely don't deserve your forgiveness after everythi—"

"Nope," Yang interrupted in confirmation before using her grip on the other woman's shoulders to quickly pull her in for a tight hug, making Blake's eyes widen in surprise, "…but I'm gonna do it anyway."

Once the initial shock had gone and the realization that she'd just been forgiven had finally sunk in, Blake's bottom lip began to quiver as tears of relief began to stream down her cheeks. Squeezing her eyes shut, the cat faunus buried her face in the brawler's shoulder, her entire body shaking as she wrapped her arms tightly around the blonde's middle to return the hug.

With her left arm wrapped round Blake's shoulders, Yang gently cradled the back of her partner's head with her prosthetic hand, being careful to not get the ebony hair caught in the metal joints of the fingers and wrist. As the cat faunus continued to sob into her shoulder, the boxer gently swayed them both from side to side as she murmured into her cat ears, "Shhh… It's okay, Blake… I forgive you… It's alright… Shhh…"

"Y-Yang?" the brunette stuttered.

"Yeah, Blake?"

"I _promise,_ I will never _ever_ leave you again."

Tears finally fell from Yang's eyes as she tightened her grip on her partner, her voice breaking as she murmured, "Thank you."

For a few moments, the two stood there locked in their hug, and they probably would have stayed like that for much longer, but the vibration of Yang's scroll in her pocket reminded the brawler of their teammates who were no doubt beginning to worry about them. Giving Blake one final squeeze, the blonde pulled away and tried to keep her voice from shaking anymore as she stated, "The others are probably beginning to wonder where we are—oh, Blake, please don't cry anymore—" she carefully wiped the other woman's cheeks with her thumbs before giving her forehead a quick kiss, "—I forgive you, you don't need to cry anymore."

"I'm sorry," the bibliophile apologized as her own hands took the place of her partner's, drying her eyes and cheeks.

"If you keep cryin', you're gonna make me cry again," the brawler added with a small smile and chuckle that sounded half like a sob. Drying her own eyes with one hand, Yang reached into her pocket and pulled out her scroll. Sure enough, Ruby had left her a text message, _"Hey, Sis! R U and Blake ok? Weiss and I R starting 2 worry."_

"Who is it?" Blake asked as she wrapped her jacket more tightly around herself to try and fend off the cold.

"It's Ruby," Yang began as she started to type out her response to her sister. "She said that she and Weiss are beginning to worry about us. I'm gonna tell her that we're fine and that we'll meet them for dinner."

"Okay."

A couple moments after Yang sent her response, her scroll buzzed as the scythe wielder sent another message that made her chuckle. She typed out, _"Yes, we did,"_ and sent the text before pocketing her scroll once more.

"What's so funny?" Blake asked.

"Ruby was just asking if we 'started our paper' yet," the boxer replied with a smile.

"What paper?" the cat faunus asked in confusion.

As the two started to make their way to the guest wing of the school, the brawler asked, "You remember that paper we had to write about the Mistrali war effort during the Great War?"

 **XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxX**

Once the black and yellow duo made it to the academy's main building, they ran into none other than the headmaster, General Ironwood himself. Seeing the soaked state of their clothes—and knowing that the members of teams RWBY and RNJR had arrived with only the clothes on their back—he offered to let them borrow some spare Atlas school uniforms, which they gratefully accepted. When the uniforms were in their possession, the general escorted them to their room, where he bid them a goodnight and left. After that, the two women began to change out of their wet clothes and into the dry—albeit dull—uniforms, with Yang changing in the bathroom and Blake in the dorm. With their dry clothes on and the wet clothes hanging in the shower to dry, the two began to make the final touches on their uniforms—straightening a tie here and smoothing out a skirt there, things like that.

"Weiss is going to be awfully surprised when she sees us dressed like this," the cat faunus commented as she zipped up her black, knee-high boots.

"Between the two of us," the brawler began as she carefully combed her fingers through her blonde mane to try and make it more presentable, "I think she's going to be more surprised to see _you_ all decked out in an Atlesian uniform, with your history with the White Fang an' all."

"…Fair point," the brunette admitted with a slight nod.

 _Knock, knock, knock!_

"Who is it?" the boxer called out to whoever was knocking at their door.

"It's your favorite teammates!" a high-pitched voice on the other side of the door answered.

Smiling fondly at the sound of her little sister's voice, the blonde walked over to the door and stated, "Hey, Ruby! Is Weiss there with you?"

" _Of course I'm here!_ " the ex-heiress snapped from the other side of the door. "She used the plural form of 'teammate,' and I think it's safe to presume that Blake is in there with you, so who else _could_ she be referring to?!"

"Oh, have pity on a poor blonde during one of her cliché dumb moments, Ice Queen," Yang sarcastically joked.

"Is it okay if we come in?" Ruby asked before her partner could retort.

"Yeah, just a second!" the brawler replied before looking the cat faunus in the eye and smiling with a nod.

Even after all this time, Blake read her thoughts loud and clear, and nodded with a playful smile of her own before going over to stand by her partner's side, both of them facing the door. Grasping the doorknob in her left hand, Yang turned her head to her partner and mouthed, "One, two,…" At the third count, the blonde quickly threw the door open and the black and yellow duo stood to attention as they simultaneously clicked their boot heels and saluted.

"Sergeants Blake and Yang reporting for duty, General Rose!" the brawler barked before smiling at her little sister and giving her a playful wink.

Ruby's eyes widened and twinkled with glee as she bounced on her toes in excitement while taking in how cool her teammates looked in the grayscale uniforms, a quiet, but almost fangirl-ish squeal beginning to form in the back of her throat. Weiss's eyes also widened, but more in shock than with mirth, and her jaw dropped in the sheer surprise of it all. To be honest, she had wondered once or twice what her teammates would look like dressed in the school uniform of her homeland—it was a perfectly innocent thing to wonder—but now that she was actually _seeing_ them in the strange yet familiar uniform… it just didn't set well with her for some reason—especially with the little military act they were doing. It made her miss Beacon's school uniforms.

"You guys look so _cool!_ " the scythe wielder squealed as she darted around to look at their outfits from every angle, leaving trails of rose petals in her wake.

"Thanks, Rubes," Yang replied. She and Blake had long since stopped their military act and were now "at ease" so to speak. Yang gave her partner's side a gentle nudge with her elbow and gestured over to the shocked and statue-like fencer. "Told you," she murmured to her before getting the ex-heiress's attention, "Hey, Weiss, why don't you take a picture? It'll last longer."

That brought the Ice Queen out of her shock and she blinked a few times as she snapped her jaw shut before asking, "Forgive my curiosity, but _why_ exactly are the two of you wearing Atlas school uniforms? And what happened to the clothes you were wearing before?"

"General Ironwood is letting us borrow these;" Blake began in reply, "our other clothes got soaked by the storm."

"Ah… that would explain it."

Ruby zipped back to her partner's side, grabbed her by the shoulders, and began to shake her as she squealed, " **Weiss, don't they look awesome in those outfits?!** "

"Yes, yes, they look very 'awesome,' Ruby, but I think there was a _reason_ why we came here to see them, in addition to missing their company."

"Oh, yeah," the young leader let go of her partner's shoulders and clasped her hands together, letting them hang intertwined as she faced the black and yellow duo and asked, "Are you two still planning on joining the rest of us for dinner?"

Yang turned her head to meet her partner's eyes and arched her eyebrows slightly, silently asking if she felt up to it.

Reading the silent question loud and clear, Blake gave the blonde a small smile and a nod.

"We'll be there," the brawler answered with a smile of her own.

"Great!"

There was a slightly awkward pause between the four for a moment before Ruby timidly asked, "Are… are you two okay now? Are you friends again?"

 _Were_ they?

With her brow knit in uncertainty, Yang looked to her partner, who was looking right back at her with drooped ears and her own brow anxiously furrowed in worry. And regret. And fear.

Whether Blake knew it or not, she had _that look_ in her eyes again. The same look she had when Ruby said that the only thing that mattered was that they were all there together. The same look she had more than once when the two of them had conversed in the garden several minutes prior. It was a look that spoke of regret and uncertainty that was preparing for the worst. _That_ was the look she was giving Yang now. To be honest, it made her want to gather Blake up in her arms in a hug, hold her tight, and reassure her that she was forgiven and that everything would be okay.

But Doubt held her back, as it had countless times before, by the clawed hand he had in the brawler's guts, twisting them every which way whenever she thought about the girl who had once been her best friend, making her feel almost sick to her stomach. _"You can't forgive her. What if she's lying?"_ he whispered in her ear, soft enough for only her to hear. _"What if you decide to forgive her and trust her and she runs away again… like your mother? Would you be able to go through that kind of hurt and heartbreak again?"_

Of course she wouldn't, it hurt too much the first time… but she had been taught that forgiveness was a _process_ , and that whenever you remembered how someone had wronged you, you were to forgive them again, and again, and again as many times as was needed.

" _Yes, but would you be able to go through that kind of heartbreak again if you forgave her and she ran away again?"_ Doubt asked again in a whisper.

 _Nope…_ she thought in response, _but I'm gonna do it anyway._

"Yeah," she murmured aloud with a slight smile, "we're friends again." Those words wiped _that look_ from Blake's face and replaced it with a timid smile as Yang wrapped her prosthetic arm around her shoulders and added, "And we're gonna be okay."

The red and white duo let out a collective sigh of relief.

"Thank God," the scythe-wielder murmured with a glad smile.

"I believe this calls for a group hug," the ex-heiress stated before timidly stretching her arms out towards her teammates.

Smiling, the other three reached out their arms as well and pulled each other into a four-way hug. Nothing was said for many moments as they all relished in the closeness that they had been starved of for months, each of them making sure to press their foreheads against that of all their teammates. When Yang began to pull away, the others thought that the hug had run its course, but were pleasantly surprised when she pulled each of them closer one at a time to plant a kiss on their foreheads, starting with Ruby, then Weiss, then Blake. The show of sisterly affection made the three smile fondly. Once the blonde had placed a kiss on every forehead, then and only then did they pull away from the group hug, but despite that, the contact didn't end; each of them still had a hand on the back, shoulder, forearm, or hand of another.

Blake was the first one to speak. "I didn't know you liked hugs, Weiss."

"Quiet, you," the fencer retorted—still a little bit too prideful to admit it.

"How 'bout we all go get some dinner?" Ruby asked her team.

"That is a brilliant idea."

"Sounds good to me."

"I could eat an Ursa!"

 **XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxX**

After the four had had dinner with the rest of their group, Team RWBY found themselves once more in the guest wing on their way to the rooms that they were staying in. They walked quietly and barely spoke a word, both from exhaustion, and from no one really knowing what to say.

Of the four of them, Yang felt the most uneasy about the silence. Glancing sideways at her partner who walked by her side, then at the red and white duo who were just a couple paces ahead, the brawler took a deep breath and stated, "I wanna call a quick team meeting."

Stopping near their conjoined rooms, the other three turned to the older sister of the team and gave puzzled looks.

Ruby's expression soon grew serious as she declared, " **Team meeting now in session!** What's up, sis?"

Leaning closer to her partner, the blonde draped her left arm around the black-haired woman's shoulders and replied, "We need to talk about our prodigal teammate."

The said teammate's head bowed and ear drooped in shame at that.

"What about Blake?" the ex-heiress asked with an arched eyebrow.

Taking a deep breath, Yang answered, "While we were outside talking, she told me that the person who cut off my arm and helped lead the attack on Beacon… was also her ex-boyfriend."

Weiss's eyes widened and Ruby gasped softly in surprise. "Is… Is that true?" the redhead softly inquired.

Ears drooping even more in shame, the cat faunus looked her leader in the eye and murmured, "…It's true."

"Wait a minute, let me get this straight," the whitehaired woman began with furrowed brow, " _Adam Taurus_ is your _ex?!_ "

Blake nodded. "I broke up with him… well… more like tried to abruptly walk out of his life, because he had turned into the violent extremist that you all know him for."

"Do you wanna tell them what happened between the two of you the night Beacon fell, or do you want me to do it?" Yang asked. Not to try and humiliate her, mind you, but just so that there would be one less thing for her partner to worry about doing.

"I'll tell them," Blake replied. She then told Ruby and Weiss of how she and Adam crossed paths again, how he had promised to destroy everything she loved, and subsequently, how it lead to Yang's disarming. As she recounted all these things, the red and white duo's jaws dropped, and Weiss covered her agape mouth with both her hands while Ruby's eyes began to well up with tears. "…That's why I left;" Blake concluded, "to keep you all safe from him. Because…" she began to tear up, "because I love you guys. You three are the sisters I never had, and I want my family to stay safe. I would rather die than see any of you hurt."

There was a moment of silence before Ruby burst into a flurry of rose petals and ran into Blake, quickly wrapping her arms around her neck in a tight hug. " _We'd_ rather die than see you hurt, either, Blake," the scythe wielder sniffled as tears coursed down her cheeks.

"Ditto," Weiss added as she approached the cat faunus's left, enveloping both her and Ruby in a hug.

At her right, Yang completed the group hug, wrapping her arms around her partner as well as her sister. "I told you," she whispered to her partner.

"And if that guy ever tries to hurt this team again," Ruby added, "then all four of us will give him heck! Right, guys?"

"Right," Yang replied.

"Correct," Weiss added.

"And no matter what happens, come Hell or high water," the brawler began to Blake, but loud enough for the others to hear, "you don't ever have to feel like running is the only option ever again. We'll back you up, Blake." This she said, both to remind the cat faunus of her promise, and to comfort her. Blake recognized this, and tears began to fall from her eyes as she hugged her team as tightly as she could and murmured, "Thank you… thank you…" over and over.

The other three teammates each uttered a "You're welcome," in return.

"Yang?" Weiss began at length. "Where were you planning on going with this team meeting, exactly?"

The boxer shrugged. "I just wanted Blake to know that we all love her and will always be here for her no matter what," she answered.

"Well," the cat faunus sniffled with a small, but genuine smile, "I think you've done a good job of getting that across."

" **Team meeting objective complete!** " Ruby suddenly shouted—right in Blake's ear—" **Team meeting dismissed!** "

The raven-haired woman hissed in pain as her cat ears reflexively folded flat against her head. "Ruby, my ears."

"Oops!" the scythe-wielder whispered. "Sorry, Blake."

 **XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxX**

Two white tulips stood perched in a snowflake-decorated paper cup filled with water. They almost seemed to be waiting with quickly waning patience as they _obviously_ didn't—and couldn't—but _totally were_ staring at Blake as she fumbled with a white petal that had accidentally been torn off when she took it out of her still damp coat pocket.

The brunette kept repositioning the petal in her fumbling fingertips as she moved her _almost_ shaking hand around the blossoms, nervously trying to figure out how to make it look good as new.

While the cat faunus did this, Yang watched her from where she lay on her bed, lazily toying with the right sleeve of the pajama shirt she was wearing.

After the team meeting had ended and the two halves of Team RWBY bid each other goodnight, the four had retreated to their respected shared rooms. Almost as soon as the door to their room had closed, the black and yellow due went to see if their clothes had finished drying in the bathroom. Sadly, they had not, and as Blake fished the two tulips and borrowed book from her pockets, Yang searched the closets and dresser for any clothes they could sleep in, because the school uniforms they had borrowed were uncomfortable enough to stand in, let alone sleep in. She had found two sets of white and grey pajamas consisting of both pants and a button up shirt. They were a couple sizes too big, but they looked much more comfortable than the skirts and blazers they were currently wearing, so they would have to do. Once they had changed, Yang flopped on her bed and proceeded to wind down for sleep, while Blake got busy returning the borrowed book to Weiss—apologizing profusely for accidentally getting it wet in the rain—and finding a cup and some water for the two white tulips.

Sighing tiredly, Yang tore her gaze away from her partner and let her eyes wander around the room. It was roughly the same size as their old dorm at Beacon, but instead of four beds, this room only had two, and unlike at Beacon, each bed had a nightstand and a lamp. The room also had two desks a bit larger than the ones provided at their old school, as well as a small grey filing cabinet stored conveniently beneath each one. As far as decorations went, the room—as well as the rest of the school—had a rather minimalistic greyscale theme: grey carpet, grey walls, white tile, white ceiling, you get the picture. Speaking of pictures, there were a few framed photographs of some of Mantle's snow-covered mountains hanging on the walls, but there was only one small rectangular window placed directly above the waist high dresser which looked out to the raging storm and distant mountains outside.

It was at this window that Blake stood, fumbling with the tulips.

 _Oh, for goodness sake!_ Heaving herself off of the bed, Yang joined her partner at the dresser. "Geez, Blakey, you look like you're trying to defuse a bomb." She held out her left hand. "Here, lemme try."

Sighing in defeat, the cat faunus handed the petal to her partner and murmured, "Okay."

With the torn white petal in her fingers, the boxer gently placed it in the center of the blossom it came from, carefully leaning it against the other petals before moving her hand away and smiling. "There! All better!"

Blake tried to protest that it _clearly_ wasn't "all better,"—

"But it's—"

"Nope!"

—but she was instantly shot down.

"That's the best we can do at the moment, so for now, it's gonna have to stay like that."

"…Okay."

With that decided, the two stood there and simply admired the tulips; how the light from the lamps on their nightstands illuminated them while the rain in the background made them appear almost majestic.

"…Yang?"

"Hm?"

"I haven't forgotten your hobby of learning the meanings of different flowers… so why the white tulips? Out of all the flowers in the garden, why did you give me these?"

The brawler gave her partner a small smile. "Because they are seen as a token of forgiveness," she replied. "They are also a good way to ask for forgiveness."

Before the blonde could begin her prepared apology, the raven-haired woman swiftly wrapped her arms around her shoulders in a tight hug and beat her to the punch by reassuring, "You have _nothing_ to be sorry for, Yang. There's nothing to forgive."

" _Yes,_ I _do_ ," the boxer corrected as she gently returned the embrace. "I'm sorry that I didn't do a better job of protecting you the night Beacon fell. I'm sorry that I was angry at you for trying to protect our team. I'm sorry that I didn't try to patch things up with you sooner… There's _so much_ that I'm sorry for." She held her partner a little bit more tightly, being especially careful not to hug her too hard with her prosthetic arm as she squeezed her eyes shut, squeezing out a few tears in the process as she whimpered, " _Please_ forgive me, Blake."

Pulling back from the embrace a little and looking her in the eye, the bibliophile wiped away the brawler's tears with her thumbs. Her voice began to break a little as she murmured, "Of course I forgive you, Yang. I already _have_. Could you please forgive _me_ for all the things I've done?"

Her partner half-smiled as she let out a dry chuckle, "Heh, I already have, Blakey."

A relieved smile blossomed briefly on the cat faunus' face as a quiet, awkward laugh escaped her lips. "Y-Yang?"

"Yeah, Blakey?"

"…M-May I please touch your hair?"

Yang smiled. "Only if I can touch your cat ears."

Blake smiled back in relief. "Deal."

Breaking the hug, their hands flew quickly yet cautiously to the top of the other's head. Blake awkwardly yet gently ran her fingers through the blonde bangs, occasionally sinking the tips of her fingers in to lightly scratch at her scalp, while Yang's left hand carefully scratched at the base of the bibliophile's right cat ear. Although her left hand was quick to jump into action, the boxer's prosthetic right hand hung hesitantly over the other ear.

Sensing her partner's trepidation, the cat faunus' left ear twitched as she murmured, "Yang, you can use your other hand, too, if you want."

The brawler's brow furrowed. "I don't wanna accidentally hurt you with it. Sometimes I forget my own strength."

"Please, Yang?" the raven-haired woman pleaded, leaning her head a little closer to the metal hand.

The blonde couldn't find it in her heart to refuse her friend. "Okay," she stated before finally letting the metal fingertips gently scratch at the base of the ebony ear.

Closing their eyes, the two relished in the familiar show of platonic affection that they hadn't been able to partake in for far too long, the feel of the fingers gently combing through hair and fur calming them greatly.

After several moments of this, Yang began to hear a low rumbling sound. Opening her eyes in curiosity, she was greeted with the sight of a huge smile that had made its home on her partner's lips. Listening for a couple seconds, the brawler realized that Blake was _purring._

Yang smiled from ear to ear. "I _knew_ you could purr," she whispered triumphantly.

" _Please_ don't tell anyone," Blake quietly pleaded without opening her eyes, "it's embarrassing."

"I won't _broadcast_ it, but if someone asks, I won't lie."

"You're the worst."

"Not my problem."

The bibliophile frowned, a grumble rising in her throat. The _last_ thing she needed was Ruby and Weiss fawning over how adorable her purring was—though, a small part of her hated to admit, it wouldn't exactly be the most unpleasant thing to happen to her.

"You gettin' tired yet, Blakey?" the boxer asked with a yawn.

The cat faunus nodded.

"Well, then let's get to bed. We've got a lot planned tomorrow."

"Okay."

Though they were reluctant to stop their ear/hair-scratching, their exhaustion had them in their beds with the lights out in moments.

"G'night, Blake," the brawler murmured from her bed.

"Night, Yang," the bibliophile whispered from beneath her blankets.

After several minutes, Yang was fast asleep, however the same could not be said for her partner. Since that evening, the thunderstorm outside had turned into the first snowstorm of Atlas's winter, and although the academy had central heating, warm blankets, and warm sleepwear, that didn't necessarily mean that everyone in the building would be warm. Atlesian winters were notorious for being exceptionally cold—Weiss could testify to this—but Blake had grown up in Menagerie's hot desert climate, making her unprepared for the cold. Her teeth chattered as she shivered beneath the blankets. She rubbed her arms to try and generate some warmth, but it did almost no good, and her poor ebony cat ears, which were pressed flat against her head, felt, in her opinion, as if they were frozen stiff. She tried to think of a way to warm herself, but her mind drew blank.

The last time she had been anywhere close to this cold was back at Beacon when the central heating system broke. She remembered that Ruby had decided that a Team-Cuddle-Night would be the only way for them all to be comfortably warm. After they had all huddled underneath the blankets on the floor, the entire team began to warm up rather quickly. Come to think of it, Blake had never been cold during those nights curled up beneath the shared blankets, the body heat of her teammates had always kept her nice and toasty warm.

Oh, how she _envied_ her past –self of that warmth!—And oh, how she _berated_ herself for taking that warmth and closeness for granted!—

Turning over in her bed—shivering all the while—she looked over at her friend sleeping peacefully on the other side of the room.

The bibliophile was hesitant at first, but soon her need for warmth outweighed her trepidation. With her decision made, the raven-haired woman threw back her covers and was instantly met with a bitter draft, probably from the window frame, that caused the fine hairs on the back of her neck to stand up on end. Whimpering, she wrapped her arms tightly around herself as she made her way across the cold hardwood floor, silently cursing her lack of socks and the building contractor's idea to forgo carpets.

By the time she made it to the blonde's bedside, she was even colder than before. Slowly, she reached her hand out towards her partner and gently shook her shoulder, whispering with chattering teeth, "Y-Yang?"

No response.

Just snoring.

"Ya-Yang?" she whispered again, shaking her partner's shoulder a bit more.

That did the trick.

"Huh? Mm—Wha—?" the brawler stammered as she woke before slurring, "Hmm? What is it, Blake?"

"I-It's really c-cold on m-muh-my side of the room, m-may I p-please sleep w-with you?" the brunette stuttered through chattering teeth.

Without even opening her eyes, the boxer haphazardly threw her blankets to the side, clumsily rolling over and patting the empty side of the bed, muttering, "Sure think, Blakey. Anythin' for the cold li'l kitten."

With a small smile of relief blossoming on her face, Blake hurriedly climbed into the bed, pulled up the blankets to cover them both, and huddled up against her partner's back. "Th-thanks, Yang," she whispered.

A loud snore was Yang's only reply.

Smiling happily, Blake buried her face in the warm blonde mane, letting out a contented sigh at the warmth found there. Within no time at all, she was nice and toasty warm and drifting off to dreamland.

 **XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxX**

Meanwhile, Yang was already in dreamland, and unfortunately, her visit there hadn't been very pleasant so far, and it was bound to get worse. Raven had abandoned her again, Ruby and Weiss had been torn from her company, and she had become Adam Taurus's prisoner once more.

He was walking towards her now.

She yelled as she fired Ember Celica at him.

The bullets went right through him.

"Where's Blake?!" she shouted.

He was silent.

He drew closer.

She redoubled her efforts.

Shotgun shells clinked against the floor as they fell at her feet.

She yelled even louder, " **Where's Blake?!** "

Still, he was silent.

Still, he drew closer.

His gloved right hand strayed to the hilt of his sword.

Her eyes turned red.

Screaming, she assailed him with everything she had.

He didn't even flinch.

Raising her arms to fire again, she was alarmed to find that her weapons, as well as her right arm, were gone.

The Beast stood before her.

Despairing, she collapsed to her knees in defeat.

The murderous masquerader was nigh.

With tears in her eyes, the scared little girl with twin pig-tails of gold looked up at him.

The red devil smirked and began to draw his sword.

Closing her eyes, Yang whimpered, "Blake, where are you?"

…

" _I'm right here."_

Opening her eyes, Yang was greeted with the sight of…

The wall of an unfamiliar room and darkness.

Something squeezed her right shoulder.

Turning her head to look over her shoulder, she saw the silhouette of her partner sitting up on the other side of the bed. The cat faunus's warm hand squeezed the brawler's shoulder once more as she murmured just loud enough to be heard over the blizzard still raging outside, "I'm right here, Yang, and I'm _not_ leaving again."

Rolling over onto her right side to better face her friend, the blonde stared at her with her mouth slightly agape and her bottom lip quivering. "Promise?" came the hushed question, just barely audible over the drumming of snow against brick and mortar.

Leaning forward, the brunette gave her friend's forehead a quick kiss before whispering, "Promise."

The boxer began to reach her trembling left arm out towards the bibliophile, but the book-lover beat her to the punch and wrapped the brawler in her arms, holding her close.

Burying her face in her partner's shoulder, Yang gripped the back of the other's borrowed pajama top as her shoulders began to shake with the sobs now wracking her body.

Yang had never had very many friends. Because she had practically raised her little sister when their father was in his grief-ridden funk, that meant that she had taken up many more responsibilities than other children, and later teens, her age. Those extra responsibilities—feeding Ruby, figuring out how to change her diapers, trying to potty-train her, playing with her, reading to her, teaching her to read and write, trying to prepare her for Pre-School, making sure she knew that she was safe and loved, among other things—in addition to her normal responsibilities, had left her little time to socialize with others her age. Even her friends from Signal could probably be best described as acquaintances and would most likely be almost like strangers now. Especially when compared to her team. Now her _team, they_ were her friends. _They_ were _family_ —two figuratively, one literally. She wasn't lonely when she was with them. Yang's number one goal in life had always been to protect Ruby and spare her from as much pain and sorrow as possible while taking away whatever hurt and sadness she ever possessed. This meant that when something was troubling the blonde, she would rarely, if ever, confide in Ruby for fear of making her upset or sad or worried. And since Weiss had been cold and standoffish during their time at Beacon, that left one person for the brawler to turn to when things troubled her: her partner. She especially wasn't lonely when she was with Blake, after all, how can one ever be lonely in the presence of their best friend?

When she was recovering from the loss of her arm after Beacon fell, the loneliness had been so sudden and so abrupt that it was like a sucker-punch to the face, leaving her more depressed than before she met Blake.

Some of that loneliness started to dissipate as she pour her heart out through her eyes.

As she did so, Blake held her tightly, her arms wrapped around her shoulders, cradling her close with one hand and slowly rubbing between her shoulder blades with the other. The moving hand occasionally stopped for a few moments to give some gentle, comforting pats before resuming its up-and-down motions once more. As she did this, the bibliophile rested her cheek atop the brawler's head, pressing a kiss to the blonde's forehead and bangs every so often.

In a desperate attempt to quieten her partner's cries, Blake began to quietly hum. It was a song that she had heard Yang quietly sing to Ruby late at night whenever the little sister had nightmares, and even sometimes during the day when the older sibling thought no one was listening. She didn't know all of the words to the song—she didn't even know if she was hitting all the right notes—but if it helped in any way at all, then she would be thankful for it.

After several seconds of listening, Yang's teary eyes widened as she recognized the tune. Pulling her face from her partner's shoulder, she looked her in the eyes, mouth slightly agape in shock, staring for several seconds. Finally, she closed her mouth and did her best to swallow the lump in her throat as she began to hum along.

Several moments of off-key humming later, Blake began to sing what few lyrics she knew.

"…Don't ever doubt

Don't ever fear

I'm always her and you know

I will cling

I will clutch

I'll hold onto you

I won't turn away

I won't leave

I won't go

I will stay with you

All of our days."

Blake sang it as a promise… and Yang knew it. More tears streamed down the brawler's face as she attempted to sing along. Tears ran down the bibliophile's cheeks as well as they tearfully repeated the refrain.

"I will cling

I will clutch

I'll hold onto you

I won't turn away

I won't leave

I won't go

I will stay with you

All of our days."

Unable to sing anymore, the blonde bowed her head and began sobbing once more. The brunette gently pressed her forehead against her best friend's bangs in a very cat-like head-butt, cupping her face in her hands and gently wiping away her tears as she slowly and quietly sang the ending.

"I will staaaay with yoooou

Aaaall oooour daaaaaaaays."

Yang grasped her best friend's right hand with her left and held it tightly as she whimpered, "I love you, Blakey."

The cat faunus gave a bittersweet smile. "I love you, too, Yang."

The brawler sniffled. "Will you always be my best friend?"

"Always," the bibliophile tearfully murmured. "I promise."

After several moments of just laying quietly, enjoying each other's silent company, Yang timidly asked, "Blake?"

"Yes, Yang?"

"May I please touch your cat ears?"

Blake smiled, a soft purr subconsciously rising in her throat. "Only if I can touch your hair."

"Deal."

Both women brought their hands to the top of the each other's heads, and began to gently run their fingers against blonde locks and ebony fur respectively.

Despite what some movies, books, or fanfictions may say, two people sharing a twin-sized bed isn't the most comfortable of sleeping arrangements. Especially if the two in question are both grown adults.

Why?

I've told you why.

The sharing of personal space can make things uncomfortable, or awkward, or a combination of those things.

But, when it's your best friend, however, you don't tend to mind as much.

After several minutes, the gentle movements of Blake and Yang's hands atop each other's heads began to slowly lull them to sleep, and as they closed their eyes and their hands eventually stilled, they fell asleep with smiles on their faces…

Because they were best friends again.

 **XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxX**

 **Thus endeth both the chapter and this fic.**

 **Now time for explanations as to why this is so late:**

 **I have homework for college.**

 **I have ADHD which makes it difficult to focus on said homework (and sometimes writing).**

 **My Dad had surgery, which was no fun for any of us, but he's okay now, thank God.**

 **I have a job now.**

 **That job is working as an Afterschool Counselor at a public school. I was homeschooled growing up. That means I stayed home 90% of the time and wasn't exposed to as many germs as public school kids, which means my immune system is absolute trash compared to those of my peers, and whenever one of the kids under my care gets sick, you can just bet that I'm going to get sick, too. I started this job in August. I have been sick five times in as many months. I'm sick as I'm writing this author's note. And I have finals to prepare for. Today's the 6** **th** **of December; the finals are on the 16** **th** **. Yeah. (Also, fun fact, one of the kids I work with is a fan of RWBY and we've have many fun conversations about our favorite characters. If you're reading this, hi, Moxie! :-) *waves*)**

 **Some of you said that you didn't like how there wasn't very much dialogue in the previous two chapters. Dialogue is a bit difficult for me to write so it takes a bit longer. And as you can see, there's a bunch of dialogue in this chapter.** _ **Whoop-whoop!**_

 **The previous two chapters and their author's notes combined are about 7 ½ pages long in my Microsoft Word doc on my computer. This chapter plus its author's notes combined are about 20 ½ pages long. That's almost** _ **4X**_ **the length of the previous two chapters and their author's notes combined!** _ **Whoop-whoop!**_

 **So…** **that's why this chapter is so late. I'm sorry.**

 **I just want all of you to know that you're reviews helped me keep going and brought me so much joy. Thank you** _ **so much!**_ **I would like to especially thank Agent-007.1, your review really made my day. *Finger guns.***

 **I might make a brief little epilogue for this in the near future (and fix any mistakes I may have missed in this chapter), but I'm still going to have this marked as "Complete" and get to work on** _ **Blake's Favorite Bookstore**_ **and try to see if I can make any more progress in** _ **Reveal and Feel.**_ **Speaking of which, I have some RWBY story ideas on my bio page and a poll for you to vote on which one you want to see next! Please consider checking it out.**

 **Anyways, I hope y'all enjoyed reading this as much as I did writing it. Please tell me what you thought in the review box bellow and tell me what your favorite/least favorite part(s) were. As I said, your reviews never fail to brighten my day.**

 **Thank you all so much for reading, God bless you and your day, and Merry Early-Christmas!**

 **Sincerely, The Professor.**


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